May 26, 2026
12 p.m. – 1 p.m. (Eastern Time)
Online
Hosted by the Centre for Safeguarding Minors and Vulnerable Adults (CPCS). This free webinar is offered online and in English only.
Join us for an engaging conversation with Dr. Garrett Pace, contributor to the interdisciplinary volume edited by Myriam Wijlens and Yeshica Marianne Umaña Calderón emerging from the course “The Wellbeing of the Child. Protection—Promotion—Rights”. Since 2021, the course has brought together approximately 35 scholars from diverse disciplines, with 14 contributing to the publication.
In school, children learn about the world, but do they learn about their rights and their place in it? Dr. Garrett T. Pace takes us through a survey of 37 countries to explore how children discover the Convention on the Rights of the Child, what works in teaching them about their rights, and what still needs to change. His findings offer surprising insights into where child rights education is thriving, where it is falling short, and what schools and communities can do to promote children’s rights education.
Interviewed by Yeshica Marianne Umaña Calderón.
Dr. Garrett Pace
Chapter author: Child Rights Education: Its Role and Prevalence Across the World
Garrett Pace, PhD, MSW, is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Dr. Pace received his PhD in Social Work and Sociology from the University of Michigan. Dr. Pace’s research examines how family processes and social policies shape child and family wellbeing, with a focus on the causes, consequences, and prevention of family violence from a children’s rights perspective.
Yeshica Marianne Umaña Calderón
Interviewer & co-editor of The Wellbeing of the Child
Yeshica Marianne Umaña Calderón LLM, JCL holds a Law degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and a Licentiate in Canon Law from San Damaso University, Madrid. She is currently a Doctoral Candidate in Canon Law at Comillas Pontifical University in Madrid and in Catholic Theology at the University of Erfurt, where she also serves as Academic Research Assistant at the Chair of Canon Law. Her recently submitted dissertation examines the rights of victims of clergy sexual abuse in canonical penal law. Ms. Umaña Calderón has published in Studia Canonica and Carthaginensia.
About the book: The Wellbeing of the Child – Promotion, Protection, Rights
The wellbeing of children, with a focus on their rights, protection, and participation, requires an interdisciplinary approach, including international and constitutional law, ethics, psychology, medicine, theology and canon law.
Leading experts from UN institutions, academic and ecclesial settings, as well as professional practice, address topics ranging from the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, truth mechanisms and safeguards against repeated cases of systematic abuse, child participation in public decision-making, ethical concerns surrounding artificial intelligence, psychological and medical implications of COVID, as well as current safeguarding provisions, including within the Catholic Church.
“The global effort to create a world that respects children’s rights remains work in progress and is in fact in need of more critical thought leadership from multiple disciplines. The collections in this book make a significant contribution to address this need.”
— Benyam Dawit Mezmur, member and former chairperson of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
Editors: Myriam Wijlens (Professor of Canon Law, University of Erfurt; former member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors) and Yeshica Marianne Umaña Calderón (Academic Research Assistant at the Chair of Canon Law, University of Erfurt).
The book is available for purchase and Open Access at .
