Odete Severino Soares is a Guest Professor of Family and Childrens Law at the NOVA School of Law and Deputy Director of NOVA Centre for Child Law and Childrens Rights (NOVACCL). She is currently a PhD candidate and an Associate Researcher at the Centre for Policy on the Convention on the Rights of the Child at the NOVA School of Law from where she received her Masters in Law and is now the Executive Coordinator of the Postgraduate Course on Childrens Rights. She has taught several specific training courses in the area of childrens rights and is a member of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Children and Adolescents at the University of the Azores. She is a member of EUROCHILD, the Child Friendly Justice European Network and the Instituto de Apoio Criana. She is an associate member of the NOVA Knowledge Centre for Business, Human Rights and the Environment and acts as an independent expert at Caritas Portuguesa Observatory for children. Odete is a member of the Advisory Board of the National Monitoring Mechanism for the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and represents the National Human Rights Commission. She was Director at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation of the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security for 10 years, having participated as an expert with the Council of Europe, the United Nations and the European Union in the areas of social policy, equality, human rights and children’s rights, participating in several national, European and international working groups and committees. She was Vice-President of the National Commission for the Promotion of the Rights and Protection of Children and Young People for 4 years. She is author and co-author of several publications and books on children’s rights, including Descoberta dos Direitos da Criana (Discovering the Rights of Children), 2023, published by the Portuguese Parliament, and O Direito de Participao e Audio das Crianas nos Processos Judiciais (The Right of Children Participation and Hearing within the Administrative and Civil Judicial Proceedings), Slabo, 2024.