Child Rights Governance
– making children’s rights children’s realities
Tillykke Jul
Glædelig
Child Rights are the DNA
of our work
A common vision for children
Save the Children envisages a world that respects, protects and fulfills children’s
rights. The foundation for our work is the United Nations Convention on the
Rights of the Child (the CRC) which encompasses the fundamental freedoms
and the inherent rights of all human beings below the age of 18. Children have
the same rights afforded to adults and in addition have rights in the CRC that
reflect their particular needs as children. The CRC is in essence an agreement
between countries to obey the same ground-rules deemed necessary for a child
to survive and develop to his or her full potential. Insistence that all children have
exactly the same rights is particularly important in a world of growing inequality
and discrimination.
2
Foto: Karin Beate Nøsterud/Save the Children
Global commitment and a common agenda for action
The CRC was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1989, has been ratified
by close to all states and is recognized as international law. The CRC does not
just state what children’s rights are – it goes much further, obliging all governments that ratify it to take all necessary steps to ensure that children’s rights are
realised in their country as well as to co-operate internationally on their fulfillment worldwide.
Collectively, these obligations form an agenda for action - requiring governments
to critically analyze the situation of children in their countries, to identify where
rights are not being realized and why, and to ensure attention and resources are
focused where they are most needed. Equally, they place obligations upon the international community as a whole to assist those countries that carry the burden
of poverty and have the least resources and capacity.
While there is a vital role for governments and their capacity need to be
strengthened, there is also a critical need for an effective and progressive civil
society. This includes INGOs working with and through local civil society organizations. Save the Children aims at holding governments, citizens and the international community to account for their commitment and obligation to children and
supports local civil society to do the same.
3
Foto: Louise Dyring/Save the Children
Child rights governance is
good governance
Good governance is essential for children’s wellbeing. It is about a government
being responsible to its citizens in terms of delivering services, being open and
transparent about decision-making processes, making information accessible and
having established independent mechanisms whereby it can be held to account
for its actions and inactions.
“Direct work can bring improvements to many children and greatly enhances our credibility as advocates, but we believe far more will benefit if
we can help shift policy, programme and political priorities on the part of
governments and others in position of power.”
“We work with civil society organizations, especially in developing countries, to strengthen their capacity to deliver for children, shift attitudes,
and hold their governments to account.”
4
(Alliance strategy 2010-15, Theory of Change)
For Save the Children to achieve these ambitious goals Child Rights Governance
will be crucial. Child rights governance provides the basis for all the measures
that governments need to take to turn children’s rights to survival, health, education, protection and participation into practice. It is about building systems that in
the long run will institutionalize children’s rights and make them part of children’s
everyday lives. It is also about recognising children as right holders and citizens
by listening to their experiences and opinions and support their proposals and
initiatives.
Advancing child rights governance is the way to improve the well-being of millions of children in a sustainable way.
Save the Children promotes
Child Rights Governance
….through three sub-themes
Child Rights Governance is proposed as one of six global initiatives of the Save
the Children Strategy 2010-15. The role of Save the Children is to lobby for,
support and strengthen structures and systems that institutionalise child rights
governance, as well as enhancing the knowledge, skills and willingness of government and civil society to monitor, implement and promote children’s rights. The
theme is divided into three sub-themes:
1. Child rights monitoring
Documentation and monitoring For child rights governance to be effective,
governments and citizens need to know about children’s lives and what the
reality looks like from children’s perspectives. Disaggregated data on children’s
situations as well as children’s views must be collected, analyzed and disseminated. Save the Children supports existing independent bodies and government
institutions to do so. This data must then inform government and our practice
and policy to improve the situation of children.
5
Resources Budget allocation and spending are valid indicators of political
will and therefore should be monitored. Such analysis can then be used to
advocate for increased resources to be allocated to children’s issues.
UN Reporting process At the international level States are held to account by
the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC reporting) and to the Human Rights Council (UPR reporting) to whom they submit reports on their performance. By preparing so-called ‘alternative’ or ‘supplementary’ reports NGOs
have established a complementary and critical view, where children’s views are
included, to governments’ own reports. Over time the reporting process has created important leverage for political and progressive change.
Following the launch of the Child Rights Act in Sierra Leone, Save the Children worked with the Child Forum Network and children’s clubs to develop
a child-friendly tool to monitor the progress of the Act in their communities. Children prioritised specific rights and tested different methodologies
for collecting information on them. The tool will be used as a basis for
child-led advocacy at community, district and national levels.
2. Strengthening national systems
Legislation and national strategies. SC supports and advocates for the review,
amendment and development of national legislation to ensure incorporation of
the principles and standards of the CRC into national laws and courts and for
national plans of action to implement children’s rights.
Children’s ombudsperson. Development of independent institutions that can
hold governments to account for child rights are a significant step forward in
advancing child rights governance.
Child-friendly administration and services. Governments need to ensure that
public administration and services take the best interests of children into major
consideration and have the right guidance, competences and resources to do so.
6
Effective structures and coordination mechanisms at all levels. Ministries and
institutions dealing with children’s issues often have low political status and are
not effectively coordinated. Good child rights governance requires positive political leadership in government and effective coordination of all the ministries and
agencies dealing with children’s issues.
In Egypt, Save the Children supported a network to conduct advocacy
work on amendments to the Child Law to be in line with the CRC.
Advocacy tools such as Questions & Answers , child rights fact sheets, and
3 booklets for parliamentarians were produced and used to influence
Members of Parliaments and media personnel. Nearly 95% of our recommendations and views have been included in the amendments and were
approved by the Egyptian Parliament in June 2008.
3) Building awareness and capacity
Child Rights education for children and their communities. To claim their rights
children and their care takers need to be aware of them and child rights governance programmes seek to raise understanding of children’s rights and how they
can be implemented in practice.
Capacity among service providers. Teachers, social workers, police and judiciary
staff as well as other professionals in regular and close contact with children need
the competence and capacity to work in a child friendly manner respecting the
rights of every child.
Capacity among child rights NGOs. Save the Children is engaged in networks that
push for accountability of governments towards child rights. Save the Children also
works to strengthen civil society organizations capacity and resources to promote,
contribute to and advocate for children’s rights to be respected and to claim accountability from those responsible. Save the Children also works to strengthen civil
society’s capacity to support child-led groups and their networks, and to support
children’s advocacy initiatives to promote their rights.
With support from Save the Children Bangladeshi children working in a
tannery organised themselves and other children in the area also working
in tanneries in order to improve their working conditions. Through well
organised and well planned advocacy work they managed to get aprons,
boots and gloves and agreeing on rules with employers in 10 tanneries in
the area. They also managed to get ID cards helping them avoid being
harassed by police.
7
Foto: Rachel Palmer/Save the Children
8