• You can read the full submission from Child Rights Connect and its Children’s Advisory Team (CAT) and Mentor Group here.  

 

7 of the current and former members of Child Rights Connect’s Children’s Advisory Team recently shared case studies to feed into an upcoming report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders on the positive impact of human rights defenders around the world. 

They are child human rights defenders (CHRDs) and are empowered to take forward their own human rights initiatives at local and national level and to engage in advocacy activities with Child Rights Connect at the international level. The child advisors shared some of their activities they have undertaken in their country or community as a child human rights defender and showed the positive impact this has had! 

Child Rights Connect shared the inputs of the child advisors and mentors relating to positive impacts they have achieved as child human rights defenders (CHRDs), the support they have received, the risks they have faced as defenders and the recommendations they have on how the Special Rapporteur can better protect and empower CHRDs in the Office’s activities. The submission also highlighted the context of broader CHRDs acting globally and the importance for the Special Rapporteur to include a focus on the situation, needs and rights of CHRDs in the forthcoming report.  

Next year, Child Rights Connect will celebrate its 40th anniversary. To mark the occasion, a project will be launched to address anti-child rights around the world and the role and impact of child human rights defenders in achieving positive social change. The upcoming report of the Special Rapporteur with the strong focus we hope on CHRDs, will be actively used by our global Network as part of this project. 

The child advisors and mentors who submitted their inputs to the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders are: 

  1. Iria, who is 13 years old (current child advisor) and Fran (Iria’s peer) from Croatia
  2. Mariam, who is 18 years old (previous child advisor) from Egypt
  3. Sameer, who is 16 years old (current child advisor) from Trinidad and Tobago
  4. Jorge, who is 18 years old (current child advisor) from Bolivia
  5. Reece, who is 19 years old (previous child advisor) from South Africa
  6. Miriam, who is 17 years old (current child advisor) from Lebanon
  7. Gloria, who is 15 years old (current child advisor) from Cameron