> Call to Civil society

 

 

The increasing complexity of child-related issues as well as their international dimension obliges to work in networks. Since several years, many coalitions have been emerging at worldwide, regional or national level in order to influence political decisions, monitor undertaken commitments and implement action plans agreed at international level.

This organization in networks, favourable to exchange of good practices,  should be reinforced. It represents a cost for concerned NGOs and its financing should to be granted.

 

 

Many entities work for the promotion of children's rights in their own sector, without any link with other stakeholders and disconnected from the policies pursued by public authorities. Despite the efforts undertaken, problems are not dealt with as a whole, when it regards a child or all the children.

Organizations and institutions in contact with children can listen to them; let them participate in decisions concerning them. They can experiment new approaches that they evaluate in order to abandon, improve or pursue them according to their effectiveness. Unfortunately, effective models are often kept in the institutions that have developed them and become sectors of excellence in a weak body.

It is about ensuring a better coordination between civil society initiatives and public policies to make them more efficient.

 

 

Childhood problems need large scale multidisciplinary studies led by international teams, in particular in social sciences.

Field organizations and institutions should find new axes of research and work jointly with academic institutions in"creative experimentation" logic [72].

 

 

In this same perspective, we call upon NGOs engaged in defending the rights of the child at international level to join human rights NGOs to present annually a report on the most remarkable progress and the most serious violations of children's rights around the world.

 

 

States have to submit periodic reports on the implementation of children's rights in their own country, in consultation with concerned national actors [73]. On the other hand, civil society organizations should also contribute to alternative reports, [74] which help the Committee of the Rights of the Child to formulate their recommendations to States.

These reports, as well as the recommendations [75], have to be more widely disseminated, be released to the public and serve as advocacy tools for the rights of the child.

Moreover, the new mechanism of the Human Rights Council, the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), seeks the contribution of civil society organizations to alternative reports for the evaluation of human rights in each country.[76] Civil society organizations have to participate in highlighting the situation of the rights of the child.

Finally, States' human rights obligations are examined within the framework of special procedures [77] assigned to independent experts. Here again, civil society organizations have to collaborate to the experts' work for the rights of the child, in particular during Special Rapporteurs' country visits, and ensure that the independence of these mechanisms is protected.

 

 

 

 

[72] Cf. "Inaugural lesson at the Collège de France by Esther Duflo",  Chair Savoir et Pauvreté and professor at MIT, 8 January 2009, www.college-de-france.fr/default/EN/all/cha_int/index.htm

[73] See the General Guidelines on the form and content of initial reports that States Parties should present in accordance with Article 44  1a) of the Convention CRC/C/5, 15 October 1991; General Guidelines on the form and content of periodic reports that States parties should present in accordance with article 44 1b) of the Convention, CRC/C/58, 20 November 1996.

[74] See Chapter VIII "Participation of non-governmental organizations and national human rights institutions in the activities of the Committees" on the working methods of the Committee on the Rights of the Child:

[75] These reports are available on the web site www.ohchr.org

[76] See the page of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights dedicated to the UPR : http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/UPRmain.aspx. In addition to Human Rights Council Resolution 5/1 and the technical documents to their intention, all relevant stakeholders can resort to the members of the Secretariat, specifically, attributed to this task.

[77] As of November 2008, there were 30 thematic Special Procedures. Particularly relevant themes for the rights of the child are the special procedures on : sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, children involved in armed conflicts, trafficking in persons, especially in women and children, contemporary forms of slavery, the right to education, the right to health, extreme poverty, the human rights of migrants, the human rights of internally displaced persons.  Following the Pinheiro Study, the mandate of a Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on violence against children has been adopted by the General Assembly in November 2007, but its mandate-holder has still to be appointed (February 2009). More information on the Office of the High Commissioner's website: http://www2.ohchr.org/fenglish/bodies/chr/special/index.htm.