Claire Breen

Claire M. Breen is a New Zealand law academic, and as of 2021 is a full professor at the University of Waikato. Her work focuses on children's legal rights, international human rights and international peace and security.

Claire Breen
Title	Professor (Law)
Academic background
Alma mater	University of Nottingham
Thesis	The standard of the best interests of the child as a tradition of Western inconsistencies (1999)
Academic work
Main interests	Children's rights law, international human rights

Academic career

Breen has a Bachelor of Civil Law from University College Cork, and an LLM (International Law) from the University of Nottingham.^[1] After a PhD titled The standard of the best interests of the child as a tradition of Western inconsistencies at the University of Nottingham in 1999,^[2] Breen moved to the University of Waikato, rising to full professor in 2019.^[3]

Breen's research focuses on the rights of the child, and in particular how 'a more inclusive understanding' of children can create a better legal framework for law and policy.^[4] She has published two influential monographs on child rights, The Standard of the Best Interests of the Child (Martinus Nijhoff, 2003) and Age Discrimination and Children’s Rights (Martinus Nijhoff, 2006), and another on socio-economic influences on international peace, Economic and Social Rights and the Maintenance of International Peace and Security (Routledge, 2017).^[4] Breen and colleague Alexander Gillespie published a history of New Zealand law in 2022.^[4]

Recent articles by Breen cover a range of issues, including how New Zealand should deal with the return of an alleged ISIS terrorist to New Zealand, with reference to the rights of the two children involved, access to beaches for some disabled people, and how the ACC system discriminates against women by not covering birth injuries.^[5][6][7]

Selected works

• Alexander Gillespie; Claire Breen (23 March 2021). "The Security Intelligence Agencies in New Zealand: evolution, challenges and progress". Intelligence and National Security: 1–20. doi:10.1080/02684527.2021.1901409. ISSN 0268-4527. Wikidata Q106668480.
• Claire Breen (2012). "The Edges of Extraterritorial Jurisdiction: The Integration of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights into Peace Support Operations". Journal of International Peacekeeping. 16 (1–2): 47–83. doi:10.1163/187541111X613588. ISSN 1875-4112. Wikidata Q106668482.
• C. Breen (17 October 2008). "The Policy of Direct Provision in Ireland: A Violation of Asylum Seekers' Right to an Adequate Standard of Housing". International Journal of Refugee Law. 20 (4): 611–636. doi:10.1093/IJRL/EEN037. ISSN 0953-8186. Wikidata Q106668483.
• C. Breen (21 August 2007). "The Necessity of a Role for the ECOSOC in the Maintenance of International Peace and Security". Journal of Conflict and Security Law. 12 (2): 261–294. doi:10.1093/JCSL/KRM012. ISSN 1467-7954. Wikidata Q106668484.
• Claire Breen (January 2007). "When is a child not a child? Child soldiers in international law". Human Rights Review. 8 (2): 71–103. doi:10.1007/BF02881667. ISSN 1524-8879. Wikidata Q106668485.
• Claire Breen (2005), Rationalising the Work of UN Human Rights Bodies or Reducing the Input of NGOs? The Changing Role of Human Rights NGOs at the United Nations, vol. 5, pp. 101–126, doi:10.1163/1571807054764186, Wikidata Q106668486
• Claire Breen (2004). "Protecting the Rights of the Non-Offending Child in Ireland: Balancing State Rights with State Obligations". The International Journal of Children's Rights. 12 (4): 379–400. doi:10.1163/1571818043603616. ISSN 0927-5568. Wikidata Q106668487.
• C. Breen (1 October 2003). "Refugee Law in Ireland: Disregarding the Rights of the Child-Citizen, Discriminating against the Rights of the Child". International Journal of Refugee Law. 15 (4): 750–785. doi:10.1093/IJRL/15.4.750. ISSN 0953-8186. Wikidata Q106668488.
• Claire Breen (March 2003). "The Right to Education of Persons with Disabilities: Disabled in Interpretation and Application". Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights. 21 (1): 7–37. doi:10.1177/016934410302100102. ISSN 0924-0519. Wikidata Q106668490.