Presentation (unpublished) to the 1997 Family Violence Symposium, Palmerston North, New Zealand.

This conference paper examines issues relating to children's rights in the family, particularly in the circumstances of family break-up within the context of family violence. The paper surveys legislation, Articles contained in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) (UNCROC), and the findings of research relating to children and violence in order to highlight anomalies in legislation and legal practices. The author calls for multi-factorial approaches in violence research, child focused approaches to attachment behaviour on separation, research into the process of parental alienation (pre- and post-separation) and its impact as a causal factor of psychological abuse, and research into societal attitudes to fatherhood. The article concludes with the author's promotion of the project 'Fathers Who Care; partners in Parenting'.

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