This thesis deals with the protection of children in international refugee law. The status of a person seeking international protection under international law is primarily regulated by the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. However, this Convention does not expressly address the specific situation of the child asylum seeker. By adopting a binding Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the broad catalogue of basic civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of children has been confirmed. It includes the right of a child seeking international protection to obtain the necessary protection and humanitarian assistance when the child wants to exercise its rights under the CRC or other conventions of international law of human rights. CRC includes, inter alia, four fundamental principles, the elimination of discrimination, the right to life, survival and development, respect for the child's position and the principle of the best interests of the child. The goal of this thesis is to determine whether and how the position of the child seeking international protection under the international refugee law has been influenced by the CRC and by the principle of the best interests of the child. The thesis is divided into four chapters, the first two chapters deal with the historical...

[pt] A presente dissertação traz uma reflexão sobre a aplicação do princípio do melhor interesse nos conflitos interfamiliares de guarda, buscando a sua origem e levantando alguns critérios que possam nortear a sua utilização, uma vez que não há um conceito expresso na legislação. Nosso objetivo foi verificar se o princípio acima mencionado estava ou não sendo considerado nas decisões judiciais oriundas das disputas de guarda entre os genitores, após o divórcio ou a separação. Para efetivá-lo, desenvolvemos um estudo qualitativo de tipo exploratório junto ao Núcleo de Prática Jurídica da PUC/RJ, procedendo à análise de catorze processos de guarda identificados no período de 1997 a junho de 2007. A leitura e análise dos processos evidenciaram que o princípio do melhor interesse ainda não é totalmente considerado pelos operadores do Direito. Nos processos em que há atuação da equipe técnica (assistentes sociais e psicólogos) pode-se perceber uma conduta que explicitamente coloca a criança/adolescente como personagem principal do processo (prioridade absoluta), ouvindo-os sempre (proteção integral) e averiguando de que forma seriam melhor atendidos (melhor interesse). A conduta de juízes e promotores, por outro lado, não se afigurou, nos processos analisados, como algo que demonstrasse a preocupação com a aplicação do princípio do melhor interesse, mas ao contrário a ênfase era no encerramento dos mesmos a partir de um acordo elaborado apenas com os genitores, desconsiderando as peculiaridades do litígio e em especial o bem estar das crianças e adolescentes envolvidos. / [en] The present dissertation brings a reflection on the application of the principle of the best interest of the child in the interfamiliar conflicts of custody, searching its origin and raising some criteria that can guide its use, once there is not an express concept in the legislation. Our main goal was to verify if the referred principle was being considered or not in the decisions of the disputes of guard between the genitors, after the divorce or the separation. In order to accomplish it, we developed a qualitative and exploratory study at the Núcleo de Prática Júridica of the PUC/RJ, in which fourteen proceedings of custody in the period of 1997 until June of 2007 were analyzed. The analysis of these proceedings showed that the principle of the best interest of the child is not yet taken into consideration by some of the Law workers. The proceedings in which the social workers and psychologists participated we noticed that the adolescent/child were seen as the main characters (absolute priority) so they always got the chance to express their opinions (full protection) and therefore offered the means to point out the most suitable way to solve the cases (best interest). On the other hand, the judges and prosecutors of the analyzed proceedings did not seem to be concerned about the principle of the best interest of the child, their greatest concern was to put an end to the lawsuits making a deal with the parents, disregarding the details of the conflicts and the well being of the children and adolescents involved.