ABSTRACT
A 'conundrum' may be defined as a hard and puzzling question, and as the various chapters of this book have shown, the Memorandum is most certainly a challenging and puzzling document. Perhaps this is why such a variety of perspectives have been represented in preceding chapters, and why the Memorandum succeeds in eliciting some powerful and emotive responses. This probably also explains why, having deliberately set out to offer a wideranging assessment of the Memorandum in this book, we now find ourselves in the difficult position of trying to draw out common themes and sensible arguments in a closing review. Instead of trying to rationalise this difficulty, however, we have chosen to highlight it at the very beginning of our chapter, for we are beginning to believe that previous attempts to 'rationalise' or simplify the Memorandum may have contributed to the conundrum that it poses. The debate will and must continue, if children's rights to protection and to justice are to be achieved.
