Carolyne Willow

After a long career in children’s rights advocacy and social work, Carolyne is currently completing her barrister training (pupillage) at The Barrister Group in England.

From 2000 to 2012, Carolyne led the Children’s Rights Alliance for England, driving campaigns for transparency in child prisons and initiating legal action against unlawful restraint. She played a key role in Lord Carlile QC’s inquiry into restraint, solitary confinement and strip-searching in child prisons and co-ordinated major submissions to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child.

Carolyne founded Article 39 children’s rights charity in 2015 and was its director for ten years. In December 2024, Carolyne received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of Nottingham. She gained the Sheila McKechnie Outstanding Leadership Award in 2020, and in 2017 she won the Social Worker of the Year Gold Award for Championing Social Work Values.