This book collects the contributions made and discussed at the Third European Intensive Erasmus Course on Children's Rights, organised by the University of Molise in collaboration with the Children's Rights Centre in Ghent.

Over 35 people - students, experts and professors - from more than 10European Universities gathered at Campobasso to discuss childhood matters within the framework of the Erasmus Programme on Children's Rights.

The Erasmus Programme on Children's Rights, co-ordinated by Professor Eugeen Verhellen from University of Ghent and Director of the Children's Rights Centre, has been functioning for over approximately a decade in the field of children's rights; the issue is approached from an interdisciplinary perspective.In this respect, Professor E.Verhellen took a new initiative supported by the European Commission and organised in 1994 the first "Intensive Erasmus Course on Children's Rights" at the University of Ghent. The second Course took place in Salerno in 1995, and now we are in the fourth consecutive year, the next Course being planned for September 1997 in Geneva.

As per one of the main aims of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989, educating human and children's rights is indeed the main task of the Intensive Courses. To that effect, participants in the courses are given the chance during a one week seminar to present, discuss and exchange their own national experience in the field of children's rights and childhood studies.

This book is meant to be a sign of the growing concern on children's rights in contemporary societies. It is a testimony as well of one of the main tasks of the Erasmus network on Children's Rights, i.e., to promote and disseminate, especially among the new generations, a new attitude to children and childhood, by means of a multiplier mechanisms. Finally, it is a sign of the co-operation existing at the European level which has as its principal objective to enhance the rights of children and to better their living conditions all over the world.

Angelo Saporiti teachers Sociology at the University of Molise, Faculty of Economics. He is a member of the Erasmus Programme on Children's Rights. He has been a member of the international project "Childhood as a Social Phenomenon", a 16 countries study which was concluded by 1993.He is the author of numerous articles in the field of childhood from a sociological perspective.