Our Expert Advisory Board

Caterina Tempesta

Caterina Tempesta is senior counsel at Ontario’s Office of the Children’s Lawyer and provides legal representation to children in family law and child protection proceedings at all levels of court, including complex cases where constitutional, human rights, immigration and international law intersect.  Caterina is active in the family law and immigration law communities, as well as organizations and activities focusing on the advancement of children’s rights.  She is an executive member of the Canadian Bar Association’s Child and Youth Law Section and chairs its Committee on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was responsible for overseeing the development of the CBA Child Rights Toolkit, an online resource for legal professionals.   

In 2019, Caterina completed her LL.M. in Advanced Studies in International Children’s Rights at Leiden University in the Netherlands.  She has written on various topics relating to children and the law, and until 2019 was the editor of “The State and Child Protection” in Wilson on Children and the Law (LexisNexis), and is a contributing author to the recently-published, Children’s Access to Justice: A Critical Assessment (Intersentia).  She has been involved at the local, national and international levels as a presenter and trainer on children’s rights, and the law as it affects young people across a range of legal areas.

Lidia Rabinovich

Lidia Rabinovich, adv., is the Head of the Child Representation Unit at the Legal Aid Department, Israeli Ministry of Justice, a post which she has held since 2014. Prior to this role, Lidia served as head of the legal aid department at the UNHCR Office in Israel and as Human Rights Officer at the Special Procedures Branch of the UN OHCHR Office in Geneva. Lidia began her legal career as representative of the Israeli Attorney General in Child Protection Proceedings at the Israeli Ministry of Social Affairs. She holds an LLM from Tel Aviv University and has written and taught on the issue of Children Rights and Child Protection - her main fields of expertise.

Avril Calder

Avril Calder served as a Magistrate in London for 35 years, sitting exclusively in two specialised courts for children—the Inner London Youth Court and the Family Proceedings Court. She presided in the Youth Court from 1987 and the Family Court from 1991. For many years she had oversight of training and development for magistrates sitting in both courts and also managed a project to publicise and explain the work of the Family Court to the general public.

In the mid-1990s she was Chair of the British Juvenile and Family Courts Society, an affiliate of the International Association of Youth and Family Judges and Magistrates (IAYFJM), and organised many conferences and training events—most notably Children Who Kill in the wake of the Bulger case.

From 2006 to 2018 Avril was Editor in Chief of IAYFJM’s Chronicle and took an active role in drafting IAYFJM’s Guidelines on Children in Contact with the Justice System. In 2017 the Guidelines were launched at UNODC in Vienna and the Convention on the Rights of the Child Committee in Geneva. There was a major follow up at the World Congress. Strengthening Justice for Children at UNESCO House, Paris, in 2018. Avril organised the World Congress in partnership with Terre des hommes and Penal Reform International where she now sits on the Advisory Council.

Leslie Starr Heimov

Leslie Starr Heimov is the Executive Director of the Children’s Law Center of California (CLC), a post which she has held since 1992. Leslie is also the Board President of the National Association of Counsel for Children. Leslie began her legal career at CLC as a staff attorney, providing direct representation to parents and children in the dependency system, and later moved to a supervising attorney position. In 2004, Leslie became CLC’s first Policy Director, responsible for CLC’s legislative and policy agendas. In 2007, she was named Executive Director and under her leadership, CLC expanded its programs to include representation of children in Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Placer counties utilizing a multidisciplinary model of representation. Leslie works tirelessly to promote best practices for multidisciplinary legal representation and improve outcomes for children and their families in the child welfare system.

Benoit Van Keirsbilck

Benoit Van Keirsbilck is an elected member of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Benoit is the director of DCI Belgium (Defence for Children International). Benoit’s 35 year career has been dedicated to the promotion and protection of children’s rights at the national, European and international level.  He has been a leading force for campaigns to release children deprived of liberty and advance access to justice for children. He was a member of the Expert Group in charge of the drafting of the Council of Europe Guidelines on Child-Friendly Justice. As a member of the Advisory Committee of the UN Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty, he was the first one to believe in the drafting and realisation of the Study. This international acknowledgment comes as a result of his lifelong passion for children’s rights, his quality to connect, and his accuracy, together with his vision on the rights of children. Benoit has been elected member of the DCI International Executive Council (IEC)  of the DCI Movement for 12 years (2005-2017) and served as President  for one term. 

Robert Schwartz

Robert Schwartz is a Visiting Scholar at Temple University Beasley School of Law. Bob co-founded Juvenile Law Center in Pennsylvania in 1975 and was its executive director from 1982 to 2015.

Bob has represented dependent and delinquent children in Pennsylvania juvenile and appellate courts; brought class-action litigation over institutional conditions and probation functions; testified in Congress before House and Senate committees; and spoken in over 30 states on matters related to children and the law.

Bob’s career has involved fighting nationally and internationally for children’s rights. He chaired the American Bar Association's Commission on Youth at Risk from 2011-2013. From 1992-98 and 2006-08 he served as chair of the Juvenile Justice Committee of the American Bar Association's Criminal Justice Section, and in 1995 he helped author a follow-up report on youths’ access to quality lawyers, A Call for Justice. In 1993 Bob visited South Africa to help develop a legal system for children, and was invited to China in 2010 to speak to judges and lawyers about sentencing of youth. He co-edited the 2020 RWI volume, The Role of Social Work in Juvenile Justice: International Perspectives.

From 1996-2006 Bob was a member of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice. In 2005 he became chair of the Advisory Committee to the Children's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch.

Prudence Beidler Carr

Prudence Beidler Carr is the Director of the ABA Center on Children and the Law, where she manages a team of attorneys and core staff who work on children’s law projects throughout the country. Her substantive work at the Center focuses on federal law, immigration and child welfare, and access to legal representation. She has a background in government, nonprofit management, and children’s advocacy in child welfare and early care and education both domestically and internationally. Before joining the ABA, Prudence lived in Mexico City where she partnered with JUCONI, a Mexican organization that helps street-living youth reintegrate with their families. Previously, Prudence worked in the Department of Homeland Security Office of General Counsel, where she managed class action, appellate and Supreme Court litigation. Prudence was a law clerk for District Judge Paul S. Diamond in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. She has a B.A. from Harvard and a J.D. from Northwestern. Prudence lives in Washington DC with her husband and children.

Karabo Ozah

Karabo is a senior attorney and the Director of the Centre for Child Law. Karabo is also a lecturer in the Department of Private Law at the University of Pretoria. She lectures undergraduate and post graduate courses in child law, social welfare law, education law, children’s rights in Africa as well as human rights.

Karabo has led and contributed to the work of the Centre, including litigation successes in the Constitutional Court, Supreme Court of Appeal and High Courts. Karabo is a member of the Advisory Committee of the South African Law Reform Commission’s Project 100D on care and contact with children. She is also a member of the Hague Expert Group on International Parentage and Surrogacy which is tasked with researching the possibility of a Hague treaty to regulate international parentage and surrogacy. Karabo also served as an independent board member and the National Chairperson of Childline South Africa from 2009 until September 2016. She was a member of the Rules Board‘s Children’s Court Task Team whose mandate was to draft court rules for the Children’s Courts in South Africa. Karabo has led and also been part of various research projects for the National Department of Social Development, Save the Children South Africa and Regional as well as the United Nations Populations Fund-East and Southern Africa.