The winner in the Graduate Category is Clara Laplante-Bédard, lawyer and Ph.D. candidate in law at the University of Ottawa, for her essay entitled: Les principes de détermination de la peine sous la Loi sur le système de justice pénale pour les adolescents : Une intégration des rationalités de droits de l’enfant? (Sentencing Principles under the Youth Criminal Justice Act: Integrating Child Rights Rationalities?)

Clara is involved with the Saint-Michel Legal Clinic, where she actively contributes to the work of the Committee Against Racial Profiling and serves as an ambassador for the UN Human Rights Observatory. Her doctoral research focuses on the overrepresentation of racialized youth in Quebec’s youth criminal justice system. She is particularly interested in issues of systemic racism and racial profiling within this system, examined through the lens of children's rights.

The winning submission will be published by the Canadian Journal of Children’s Rights in the coming weeks.

The competition is open to students from university members of the Canadian Association of Human Rights Institutes (CAHRI), i.e.: St. Thomas University, McGill University, University of Manitoba, Université Laval, UQAM, University of Saskatchewan, University of British Columbia, University of Toronto, Carleton University, McMaster University, Concordia University, York University and University of Ottawa.