Ann Skelton | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 13 July 1961 |
| Citizenship | South Africa |
| Occupation(s) | Chairperson of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child |
| Title | Professor |
| Awards | World's Children's Prize |
| Academic background | |
| Education | University of Natal (BA, LLB) University of Pretoria (LLD) |
| Thesis | The influence of the theory and practice of restorative justice in South Africa with special reference to child justice (2005) |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Private law Human rights law |
| Sub-discipline | Child law |
| Institutions | University of Pretoria Leiden University |
| Main interests | Children's rights, juvenile criminal justice, privacy of children, restorative justice, education law |
Ann Marie Skelton (born 13 July 1961) is a South African jurist and children's rights activist who has been chairperson of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) since May 2023. She is a professor of private law at the University of Pretoria, where she is UNESCO Chair in Education Law in Africa, and she also holds the Chair in Children's Rights in a Sustainable World at Leiden University.
An expert on child law, Skelton rose to prominence as a practicing human rights lawyer and advocate, first in non-profit organisations and then through the strategic litigation programme of the University of Pretoria's Centre for Child Law, which was formerly headed by Skelton. In addition, through the South African Law Reform Commission, she has played a significant role in post-apartheid child law reform in South Africa, including as chair of the committee that drafted the Child Justice Act of 2008.