Profile
Liline Steyn

Liline Steyn

PhD Candidate International Law
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Spoken languages
English, Afrikaans
Areas of expertise
  • Childrens Rights
  • International human rights
  • International humanitarian law
  • International criminal law
  • International Migration and Refugee Law
  • General international law
Geographical Region of Expertise
  • South Africa

PhD Thesis
 

Provisional PhD Thesis Title: The Best Interest of Children on the Move : A close analysis of the role and complexity of the principle of the best interest of the child in the context of migration

PhD Completion Date: September 2026

PhD Supervisor: Vincent Chetail 

The intention of my research is to discover whether the international legal community has reacted adequately to the phenomenon of children on the move in relation to the Best Interest of the Child (“BIC”) principle. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is taken as the point of departure as it is the main international legal instrument that deals with children’s rights with a focus on Article 3 which encapsulates the BIC.
 

PROFILE


Liline Steyn is currently working on her doctoral research at the Graduate Institute and working as a teaching assistant of the LLM Programme at the Institute for the Protection of the Individual IN International Law. Alongside her research, she is a research assistant at the International Law Commission for one of the commissioners. Formerly, Liline was practising as a candidate attorney in South Africa and has been admitted as an attorney to the High Court of South Africa. Liline holds a BA in Humanities, an LLB and an LLM from Stellenbosch University. She also completed an exchange at the University of Antwerp during her LLB studies where she focused on International and European Law. 
 

ACADEMIC  EXPERIENCES
 

  • 2019-2021 Assistant Research Fellow (University of Professional Studies, Accra)
     

OTHER WORK EXPERIENCES
 

  • Research Assistant at the International Law Commission to Ambassador Mario Oyarzábal for the 74th Session [May 2023 – current]
  • Legal Fellow at Partners in Justice International from September till December 2022
  • Candidate Attorney at the Stellenbosch Law Clinic from July 2019 till June 2021, Consultant at the Stellenbosch Law Clinic from February 2019 till June 2019, Research Assistant at the South African Research Chair in Property Law from February till November 2018
     

AFILIATIONS
 

  • Gender Centre at IHEID