This liber amicorum refl ects the life and work of Judith Ennew who I will remember
as an empowering academic activist.
As an anthropologist, Judith started as a solid academic researcher and her work
had little to do with children. But slowly and clearly children appeared on her radar
and well before the magical year 1989 when the Convention on the Rights of the
Child was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations. Many topics in
the fi eld of children’s rights she dealt with in the course of her life will be discussed
in this book. I will try to identify the main areas of her work as I remember it taking
into account the meetings and discussions we had.
First is her interest in children who are victims of economic and sexual exploitation
and victims of violence. This interest can easily lead to elaborated research on
how these children can be best protected against the violation of their rights and
how they can be prevented. She did pay attention to the measures of protection and
prevention adults should take. But Judith was more interested in the children themselves
and in fact moved away from the ‘victims approach’ and towards the child as
an agent of change.