Updates on the project

“The Now and the Future: Advancing the Rights, Empowerment and Protection of Child Human Rights Defenders”

 

Stepping Up for Change: Context

Our world is facing many intersecting crises, and we strongly believe that children can and should be part of the solution. From organizing local initiatives to advocating on international platforms, children are demonstrating a great amount of courage and creativity. Child human rights defenders (CHRDs) are increasingly stepping up, offering unique and reliable solutions to the various challenges faced during these difficult times.

In the middle of this context, Child Rights Connect (CRCnct) launched a three-year project in 2024, The Now and the Future: Advancing the Rights, Empowerment, and Protection of Child Human Rights Defenders, funded in part by our partner  Global Affairs Canada (GAC).

Child Rights Connect, one of the largest international child rights networks and based in Geneva, Switzerland, is uniting global and local forces to create powerful collaborations. By working closely with members and partners, we’re amplifying children’s voices, championing their rights, and driving real change to empower and protectchild human rights defenders. For this particular project, we have team up with several of our Network members at national and global level – including the Alana Institute in Brazil, the Centrul de Informare şi Documentare privind Drepturile Copilului (CRIC) in Moldova, Plan International in Togo, Amnesty International in Thailand, and globally, and Save the children globally – as well as with some of our key partners. To know more about the background of this project please read our previous newsletter here.

Transforming Barriers into Opportunities: Achievements

Strengthening Global and Local Coordination

To kickstart the project, CRCnct convened a two-day inception workshop in June 2024 with partners in Brazil, Moldova, Thailand, and Togo. After a series of online discussions, Child Rights Connect together with the country partner has been developed tailored roadmaps to address specific needs in each country.

In addition to this, Child Rights Connect organized the first Project Advisory Group (PAG) in December 2024, comprising representatives from CRCnct, each partner organisation and the Child Advisory Team to advise on project implementation, review its progress, identify lessons learned and suggest any corrective actions.

Now, let us tell you about how some of our main activities are going!

Empowering the Children’s Advisory Team

The Children’s Advisory Team (CAT) has been central to the project since its start. They’re key participants, having actively contributed, among other activities, to the consultations to develop the Strategic Vision on child human rights defenders (CHRD) published at the end of 2024 and officially launched at the HRC in March 2025. The CAT responded to an initial survey to assess the risks they face undertaking activism online in order to help identify their on-line protection needs to inform the development of the ChatBot for CHRDs on online safety. Their insights helped us guarantee this cutting-edge tool is tailored to protect CHRDs when navigating the digital sphere!

The CAT has also been actively involved in strategic engagement and advocacy with United Nations Human Rights Mechanisms, contributing to enhancing different governments will acknowledge the existence, status, and role of CHRDs and to respect the implementation of their rights. For instance, CAT members actively participated in the Human Rights Council’s 56th session, where their advocacy helped secure a groundbreaking resolution on the creation of an open-ended intergovernmental working group on an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the rights to early childhood education free pre-primary education and free secondary education (here), incorporating language that recognizes child participation. Two girl child advisors form CRCnct CAT met with the UN Special Rapporteur on education and pushed for a stronger commitment to children’s rights. This advocacy proved to have a heavy impact in the informal negotiations on this resolution.

As a follow up to the General Comment N.26 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, CRCnct supported the CAT in developing a school kit containing tools on climate change and environmental rights that children can use to introduce this topic to their peers and in their own classrooms. The resources consist of a presentation, two activity workbooks for different age ranges (7-12 and 13-17 years) along with an activity guide for the child facilitating the activity. Currently the resources are available in English, French and Spanish and CRCnct will look into expanding the translations of the toolkit as widely as possible!

At the HRC 58th session, Child Rights Connect supported the CAT to influence the advocacy and participate at the Annual Day on the Rights of the Child. In March this year, Norway led the triennial resolution on Human Rights Defenders in the context of digital and new technologies. In order to inform and influence this process, Child Rights Connect organised a side-event where we officially launched the Strategic Vision on CHRD.

Creating Opportunities for Child Human Rights Defenders: Strategic Vision on CHRD

A key achievement for the child rights community last year was the production of the Strategic Vision for Promoting and Protecting the Rights of Child Human Rights Defenders! This Vision has established a clear roadmap for empowering children globally. It defines commitments, support and actions that the human rights community should take in support of CHRDs. It was published in September 2024 and officially launched in March 2025 and as of now has its own dedicated page!

It is a shared vision codesigned by children and adult representatives of human rights-focused civil society organizations and UN agencies in a series of workshops between January and May 2024. Save the Children, Child Rights Connect and Better by Codesign convened and created the space for this work.

The event in March featured powerful messages from speakers and helped build momentum for discussions on the implementation phase of the Strategic Vision. Four remarkable child human rights defenders shared their experiences alongside key voices from the UN and civil society. Additionally, the Permanent Missions of Lithuania and Panama contributed insights on child participation and rights at the UN level.

So far, this Strategic vision has received so far the endorsement and support from many impactful child rights organisations from Civil Society, UN entities and individuals, including children. You can find the list of endorsers at the bottom of this page.

The Strategic Vision is available in English, French, Spanish and Arabic, with each translation having its very own child-friendly version.

Protection of CHRD

Child Rights Connect is supporting global consultations to inform the development by the CRC Committee of their General Comment 27 on children’s rights to access to justice and effective remedies (GC27).

In September 2024 and in March 2025, Child Rights Connect developed and shared with partners a methodology for facilitators (e.g. CSOs, NHRIs, educators) as well as child-friendly material to consult children on the barriers they face to access justice and effective remedies. Children, including CHRDs, are invited to contribute to the process through two rounds of consultation. The first one already happened and informed the first draft of the GC. The second round is consisting of gathering comments on the draft GC27 through a child-friendly version. Our GAC partners (Amnesty International in Thailand, Plan International in Togo and Alana Institute in Brazil) showed interest and used the methodology to consult children in their respective countries and will do the same in the second round.

Moreover, we have launched a global survey on the digital protection of child human rights defenders. Child Rights Connect is committed to ensuring that child human rights defenders can exercise their rights safely in the digital space. This survey aims to gather information, opinions, and experiences from children advocating for human rights online.

Awareness raising and advancing advocacy and representation

At the regional level, Child Rights Connect supported the participation of seven child advisors at the Mid-Term Review Conference organized by the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on April 3–4, 2025. These child advisors actively contributed to two key sessions:

  • Protecting children from violence through age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education (April 3)
  • Promoting children’s participation in decisions about their health (April 4)

As part of the 58th Human Rights Council session, our Working Group on Violence organized a side event titled “Ensuring Accountability and Action: Sustaining Momentum on Ending Violence Against Children.” One of its key objectives was to discuss the main outcomes of the Global Ministerial Conference on ending violence against children.

The UN OHCHR with support from Child Rights Connect, including our Child Advisory Team, is gathering children’s perspectives for the upcoming 2025 report on the rights of the child and violations of human rights in armed conflicts. This report will assess the impact of armed conflicts on children’s rights and propose recommendations to strengthen their protection. It will be presented at the Human Rights Council’s 60th session in September 2025 and inform the HRC Annual Day on the Rights of the Child discussions in March 2026. The responses from the call for inputs will be analyzed in the coming weeks. The call for inputs was accompanied by child friendly information materials and a facilitators guide for CSO to facilitate group discussions.

Additionally, Child Rights Connect was involved in undertaking advocacy around the Summit of the Future, and the resulting Pact for the Future, which was held in September 2024. In a context of very limited access to information on the consultation process for the Pact for the Future, CRCnct prioritised ensuring information among members and partners and supporting advocacy by our members, including to ensure children’s participation. On 8 July, CRCnct organised a webinar for members and partners as part of a series of coordination meetings that CRCnct has been organising for more than a year and a half. The webinar covered: updates on 1) the Summit of the Future/Pact for the Future/ Impact Coalition 2) Declaration on the Future Generations 3) Global Digital Compact 4) Updates from participants on their advocacy efforts. CRCnct invited NY-based colleagues as speakers from World Vision and Save the Children, as well as 5Rights Foundation to provide updates and strengthen coordination.

Later, at the end of July, CRCnct supported efforts led by our members to inform the Rev.2 of the Pact for the Future and shared information with States (see here).

In September, CRCnct supported the organisation of an official online side-event in the context of the Summit of the Future led by a number of members and partners, including the CRC Committee, DKA Austria, UNEP and others. Child Rights Connect supported a CAT child advisor from Moldova to speak at the event! Thanks to all these efforts, the Pact includes a few important references regarding children which were missing in initial drafts.

Following talks with Canada’s UN Mission, Child Rights Connect (CRCnct) took center stage at the Human Rights Council last September! Teaming up with key partners—including Save the Children, World Vision, and several UN missions—CRCnct hosted a high-impact side event to bust myths about children’s civil and political rights. Over 100 participants joined to discuss how children’s voices can shape policies, especially on political participation. Thanks to this advocacy, the HRC resolution on “Equal participation in political and public affairs” included key paragraphs recognizing children’s rights! This event is now seen as good example for strategy to be replicated to mainstream children’s rights and advance their civil and political rights throughout the Human Rights Council. Child Rights Connect published a newspiece explaining the whole process where you can get more details!

Building a Sustainable Future

The project promotes a world where children are recognized as key actors in shaping policies and protecting human rights. Addressing challenges such as discrimination, exclusion, and lack of protection, the project advocates for stronger commitments to children’s rights. Through intergenerational cooperation and inclusive approaches, it seeks to create lasting change although ensuring that children’s rights are upheld requires continuous efforts from governments, civil society, and the international community! By amplifying children’s voices and promoting their active participation, the initiative paves the way for a more just and equitable future.

Together, we can build a world where every child has the opportunity to thrive, lead, and contribute to meaningful change.

If you are interested in the next steps of the project, please keep tune on future newspieces on our site. For more details, you can contact the Project Coordinator, Leire, at: ibanez@childrightsconnect.org