The first ISSNed journal edition features 11 original submissions by academics, researchers, advocates, and students. It covers public finance, education, nutrition, consent, social work in child rehabilitation, decriminalizing young love, digital safety, and child-centered justice.

The Centre for Child Rights (CCR) at National Law University Odisha (NLUO) released the latest issue of its flagship publication, the Journal on the Rights of the Child earlier in the week on the 15th October 2025. The journal was unveiled by Justice Savitri Ratho, Chairperson of the Juvenile Justice Committee (JJC) of the Orissa High Court. Marking a significant milestone, this is the first ever edition of the journal to be internationally indexed and assigned an e-ISSN number 3107-4030, underscoring the CCR and the journal’s commitment to global standards of academic excellence.

Delivering the Presidential address, Justice Ratho emphasized the integral role of academic contributions in building robust child rights frameworks. She opened with quoting JFK quote, “Children are the world’s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future. She shed light on the constitutional provisions on child rights, the series of legislations but also reminded everyone that child rights, child protection and welfare is not just a law and order or judicial issue, it is a shared responsibility and everyone needs to step up. She shared the relaunch of the Orissa HC’s JJC’s digital newsletter Sishu Suraksha and invited everyone to read it too. She concluded with the Nelson Mandale quote, exhorting everyone present to make it their talisman, “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way it treats it children.”

Original Submissions

The unveiling event was graced by Prof Ved Kumari, Vice Chancellor NLUO cum Patron-in-Chief of the CCR, Prof Enakshi Ganguly, Honorary Professor at NLUO and Executive Director of the Housing and Land Rights Network, Prof Biraj Swain, Chief Minister’s Chair Professor cum Director of CCR and Mr M Vijay Bhaskar, Assistant Professor of Law and Co-Director of CCR, Centre for Tribal Studies & Pro Bono Club along with faculty, staff, and students of NLUO.

Ms. Pooja Marwaha, Chief Executive Officer of Child Rights and You (CRY) and her team member Mr Subhendu Bhattacharjee, Director-Policy, Research, Advocacy and Documentation joined digitally alongwith other colleagues. Among the attendees were NLUO Dean of Research and Internationalization Centre, Prof Sheela Rai, and over 150 students studying the Child Rights course or working in the student committee of CCR.

This first ISSNed edition of the journal has 11 original submissions in the categories of papers, case commentaries, infographics and Conference Proceedings written by practicing academics, researchers, advocates and students covering issues of public finance, education, nutrition, consent, role of social work in rehabilitation and reintegration of children in conflict with law, decriminalizing young love, digital safety of children and advancing child–centred justice. All the articles can be accessed freely from the university website. This edition of the journal is published with support from the CRY, marking their continuous collaboration with CCR-NLUO and reaffirming their shared commitment to advancing child rights through academic discourse.

Rigorous Academic Processes

Prof Biraj Swain while delivering her opening remarks emphasized on the rigorous academic processes including high-level blind peer review, fact-checking, plagirism checking and AI verification that has been followed to ensure the quality and ethical standards of the journal. A multi-member team of Associate Editors—Dr Swagatika Samal, Dr Pradipta Kumar Sarangi, Mr Ankit Kumar Keshri, Dr Rashmi Rakha Baug, Dr Shubhanginee Singh and student editor Ms Madhulika Tripathy—has worked intensely to ensure all the checks and compliances before selecting the final list of the submissions for publication.

The journal has a list of Who’s Who as editorial advisory board consisting Justice Madan B Lokur, Chairperson, United Nations Internal Justice Council & Former Judge of the Supreme Court of India, Justice Gita Mittal, Former Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court,  Prof. Bernd-Deiter Meier, Director, Criminal Justice Institute, University of Hannover, Germany, Prof. Christopher Birbeck, Professor of Criminology, Salford University, Manchester, UK and Prof. Bhabani P Panda, Director, School of Law, KIIT & Former Vice Chancellor, Maharashtra National Law University.

The Editorial Board is headlined by Prof Ved Kumari who is also the Editor-in-Chief. Other members constitute Prof Biraj Swain, the Editor, Prof Ravinder Barn, Professor of Social Policy and Head of Law and Criminology Department, Royal Holloway, University of London, Dr Frederick de Moll, Professor of Educational Science, Faculty of Education Science, Bielefeld University, Germany, Dr Damanjit Sandhu, Professor and Head, Department of Psychology, Punjabi University Patiala, Dr Asha Bajpai, (Former) Founder Dean and Professor, School of Law, Tata Institute of Social Sciences and Dr Kalpana Purushothaman, Adjunct Faculty, Indian Institute of Psychology and Research Bangalore.

Both the editorial advisory board and editorial board have together ensured that the  journal adheres to the highest academic standards and inter-disciplinary lens of child rights.

Beyond Juvenile Justice

The journal is committed to expand the remit of child rights beyond juvenile justice and POCSO and welcomes scholars, academics, practitioners, policy makers and members of the judiciary to engage with contemporary issues that impact children’s rights and wellbeing. Emphasizing this, Prof Kumari emphasized the need to bridge gaps between research, policy, and practice to build an inclusive framework that understands and addresses the needs and rights of children.

Prof Ganguly highlighted the strategic advantage of CCR being housed within an university. She noted that this setting provides an ideal environment to generate innovative research outputs, contribute to governmental efforts, influence policy development concerning children, and engage as a knowledge partner with the State and the HC’s Juvenile Justice Committee (JJC).

Marwaha highlighted the urgent need to put child rights at the center of every policy and public conversation. She reiterated that the journal will not only showcase rigorous research but also bring to the forefront lived realities of real children and real people—both of which are essential for driving effective policy, programme and advocacy.