Children's Human Rights - An Interdisciplinary Introduction A.pdf

Children's Human Rights -
An Interdisciplinary Introduction A
University of Geneva
General Presentation
Hello. My name is Jean Zermatten. I have the privilege to chair the UN Committee on the Rights
of the Child directly in this room. We are here in Palais Wilson in Geneva, the heart of children's
rights. Thirty years ago, the international community discovered the fact that the child is not only
a human being in need of protection, love and care, but also a subject of rights. This is a big
revolution I think and it is underlined by the UN Committee on the Right of the Child that the
international community promulgated in 1989, 30 years ago. And this new and revolutionary
statute provoked challenges for the states, for the community, for adults and for the children
themselves. It is the reason why we have decided to develop an online course on children's
rights. And it's a pleasure to be here with my two colleague, Roberta Ruggiero and Professor
Philip Jaffé. Many thanks, Sir Jean. My name is Philip Jaffe. I am a Professor of Psychology at
the University of Geneva and the Director of the Children's Rights Center. This course was set up
with a fantastic collaboration between our institute and the International Institute for the Rights of
the Child and we've based this course on four core principles. The first one is that we've tried to
make it as wide ranging as possible because children's rights is a vast issue and field. The
second is that we've tried to make it as interdisciplinary as possible in that it's a complex field that
requires many different disciplinary angles. The third is that we've based it on the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is a very rich document. And the fourth is that we've
tried to call on - we've reached for the stars. We've called on the scholars and pioneers in the
field of children's rights and one of those stellars choices was Roberta Ruggiero, who is the
program manager for this course. Thanks Philip. Hi everybody. I'm Roberta Ruggiero. I'm a
Senior Research Associate at the Center for Children's Rights Studies of the University of
Geneva. This course has been conceived as an introductory program to the children's rights field
and was precisely designed for those who would like to build their knowledge in this specific field
and for those who already have a certain knowledge on children's rights and that are eager to
further develop it. We welcome your interest in the field of children's rights. And if you have not
registered yet, please do so quickly. And we hope that you'll enjoy this course, which really will
trigger your imagination and your knowledge. Thank you and good luck.
Syllabus
The Children’s human rights: interdisciplinary introduction course draws on the contributions of
several academic disciplines including law, psychology, sociology, history, educational and health
sciences, economy and anthropology, an interdisciplinary approach guides the student into a
selection of critical issues concerning children’s rights.
The course aims to enable you to gain insight relative to the development of this specific human
rights category, as well as to the evolution of the challenges faced by children over time and
society’s efforts to respond. Successful international strategies and programs promoting
children’s rights will be highlighted, as well as the role of key actors involved in international
organizations working in this field. This course provides an overview of the most important
features of children’s human rights. A central portion of the course will consist of a presentation
of the international and regional standards on children’s rights and the related international and
regional judicial and quasi-judicial bodies designed to ensure their implementation.
You do not need to have prior knowledge of the field. The course is conceived as an introductory
level program, but participants, who wish to deepen their knowledge in the field of children’s
rights, or already have some prior knowledge, will have access to a large range of reading
material.
Participants who successfully complete the class activities and final assessment may request a
Statement of Accomplishment signed by the Instructor and the main professors responsible for
the program. However, no credits are awarded.
This course is presented by Prof. Philip D. Jaffé, Dr.h.c. Jean Zermatten and Dr. Roberta
Ruggiero (University of Geneva). They will be joined by many other researchers, experts and
practitioners from the field.
The course consists of seven topical modules. English is the only language of instruction. All
material is available on the course page. This course is made up of the following 7 modules:
1. International standards and monitoring systems
2. The history of children’s rights in the context of human rights.
3. Interdisciplinary Children’s Rights Studies
4. Juvenile justice
5. Violence against children
6. Children’s right to participation
7. Children’s rights and global health
To obtain a Certificate of Achievement from the University of Geneva and Coursera, you must
pass each of the seven quizzes. To pass you must answer at least 80% of the questions
correctly. For each quiz, you will be given three attempts every eight hours. Please note that the
course certificate does not give you ECTS credits.
The course is not time limited and you are free to follow the course at your own pace. However,
our recommendation is that you try to complete this course within two months.
We encourage you to actively participate in forums with the other course participants. Please
always be polite and respectful when interacting on topics related to the course.
We look forward to you joining us.
1.1 Introduction
We will use the subdivision for the presentation of this module between the traditional
subdivision, if I can say, between political and civil rights, economical, cultural and social rights.
What is also an important part of this module will be the monitoring system of human rights in
general and for children's rights, specifically. We will organize also a round table, our original
monitoring system. And at the end, we will also deal with the special role of key actors as human
rights independent institution for human rights and specific for children's rights. The work of
NGOs and the implication of children themselves. Roberta, please. >> Thanks, Jean, for the
introduction. Hello, everybody.
Just in few words, the main objective of this module is to raise the awareness and the knowledge
of participants about some specific context. We will discuss about the background, the main
content and the motivation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. We will speak about the
international political context during which the Convention on the Rights of the Child was draft.
We will present you and discuss with you some specific aspect of the United Nation monitoring
system pertaining to the implementation of the children's human rights, and to the
implementation in detail of the principle included, and contained in the Convention on the Rights
of the Child. We will furthermore discuss about and address issues related to multilevel
governments in relation to the implementation of the children's human rights at the international,
regional and national levels.
I'm sure you will enjoy the module and see you further in the next one. [MUSIC]

1.2 The United Nations Convention on the
Rights of the Child: from drafting to
reception.
[MUSIC]
I'd like to give you an idea of how the Convention came in to being, in other words, from the
moment that it was proposed to the moment that it was adopted.
I had the pleasure and the great experience of being the spokesperson for the non-governmental
organizations involved in the drafting process, so I was present for most of the time.
It all started off with a proposal by Poland in 1978, which
was based almost entirely on the 1959 Declaration of the Rights of the Child.
This was because Poland wanted to ensure that the Convention could be adopted during the
International Year of the Child, which was in 1979. So Poland felt that it was the best idea to
provide a text which had already gained international approval in 1959, and could be, Poland felt,
adapted to a Convention, so that it would be a lasting memory of the International Year of the
Child in the coming year.
Poland was particularly happy with the text of the Convention because it concentrated almost
entirely on economic, social and cultural rights. There was only one civil right in the Declaration,
and therefore that corresponded to Poland's thinking at that time in relation to the rights of the
child.
When the proposal was made to the then-Commission on Human Rights, as is the case with all
treaties or all future treaties, the UN Secretary General contacts all member states and
inter-governmental organizations requesting feedback on the proposal.
And this feedback was to some extent supportive but also very critical.
The first criticism that was made of the text was that it didn't cover a wide range of rights.
Precisely, only the economic, social, and cultural rights essentially.
So there was no mention for example, of juvenile justice questions. There was no mention of
children in armed conflict situations. There was no mention of children of minorities or indigenous
peoples.
And there was no mention, for example, of adoption.
That meant that it was incomplete in its scope in the view of many states.
It also took no account of development since 1959, when the Declaration had been drafted.
These developments were many, including the fact that the UN itself was a very different
organization. Of course, decolonialization had taken place in the ensuing period.
And there were many new human rights instruments, in particular the two covenants on civil and
political rights, and on economic, social, and cultural rights, which had come into force in that
ensuing period, and which had to be taken into account in drafting a new Convention on the
human rights of the child.
Another criticism was that it was not worded in a way that was suitable for a treaty. The
Declaration was worded in a way which doesn't correspond to the kind of technical language
required in a treaty.
It lacked detail, and it contained vague formulations of the principles that it put forward.
Another criticism was that the monitoring mechanism was very weak. States just had to report to
the Economic and Social Council under the Polish proposal, and not as is the case, of course,
today, to a treaty body, the Committee on the Rights of the Child.
And then there was a very forceful argument which was that precisely because the International
Year of the Child was about to begin on the 1st of January 1979.
It will be a good idea to wait until the end of that year to see what new initiatives had been taken,
what new concerns might be brought up, and to take account therefore of the International Year
of the Child, results in drafting this new Convention.
Strangely, some quarters remained completely silent.
They had made neither supportive nor critical noises. And one of the most surprising in that
regard was UNICEF, which didn't say a word.
And that was to mark the first half of the drafting process. In other words, that UNICEF did not
become involved in the drafting process until later, as I'll explain. Despite this criticism on the part
of member states, the UN General Assembly nonetheless suggested, or urged even, that the
Convention be adopted during the International Year of the Child. But the Commission on Human
Rights decided otherwise and set up a working group of member states in order to deal with all
the criticisms and suggestions that have been made and to come up with another draft. And as a
result of this, Poland submitted a revised draft of the Convention in order to have it as the basic
working document. And this revised draft was very different, much improved, and served indeed
as the basis of the drafting in the ensuing years.
So how did the drafting work? Well, first of all, as I said it was a working group called an
Open-ended Working Group which was set up to deal with the revision and the drafting of the
Convention.
It was composed of member states of the Commission on Human Rights,
plus Any other interested member state of the UN, plus inter-governmental organizations with an
interest such as WHO, the ILO, and of course UNICEF.
And then also allowed to be present were international non-governmental organizations who
were interested in the process.
Interestingly, it took its decisions on the basis of consensus. In other words, there was never a
vote on text. Everything had to be adopted by consensus.
The unfortunate result of that was that several issues were binned because there was no
consensus. For example there was no mention of early marriage even though there was
considerable support for the idea of having a specific reference to early marriage in the
convention. The idea was dropped because no consensus could be found on the way in which it
was to broached.
But if there were disadvantages to consensus, the big advantage of course was that there was
thorough discussion on all topics to be broached and the resulting text was the one that could be
put to the UN General Assembly in the end because there was no more discussion needed.
Everybody had been happy with the text as it stood.
However, the drafting process did not have much priority on the part of states. They were not
willing to invest a great deal into the drafting process
and this resulted in rather poor attendants during the drafting sessions which took place once a
year, just for week.
And so, there was initially very slow progress. One, two, three, four paragraphs or articles at
each session, that's all.
So, the drafting of the convention did not get off to a magnificent start.
An important issue for the drafting was the state of the East-West relations.
Of course, in the early 80's the Cold War was still a reality.
And since the proposal had come from Poland, the Western states were often opposed on
principle to a number of suggestions made by counterparts in the East
simply because of the Cold War political reality.
And this carried on until the mid-80s when the Cold War started to thaw. So as of '85, '86, there
was a definite improvement
in the way the convention was drafted.
It's not only East-West but also North-South which was an issue. And that was because there
were few countries, in particular from Africa but also to a certain extent from Asia, who could
invest the time
in joining the drafting group and therefore they were somewhat underrepresented. They did have
some very good representatives but
]
they were still underrepresented numerically. And that meant that there were fears that this was
going to become a convention drawn up by the North which would not take account of concerns
in the South. But by the end, the non-industrialized countries had improved their participation and
that included countries of Islamic Law.
And therefore, by the end, we had a situation where participation was indeed
more reflective of the reality of the world as a whole.
Another aspect which had an influence on the drafting was the fact that several other instruments
were being formulated at the same time. Part of instruments for example in this field of Juvenile
Justice and in the field of Foster care and adoption. And so there was a kind of transfer of
experience from the drafting of those instruments into the drafting of the convention.
The NGOs were not automatically given the floor. In fact they could be invited to take the floor
during this drafting session.
But they had no rights to do so.
Initially, the NGO's who were interested in taking part were disorganized, and rather desperate
bunch.
At the time there were no fewer children's rights NGOs. Plenty of children's in NGOs but no
children's rights NGOs.
With consultative status at the UN, in other words that therefore had the right to take part in the
working group.
Human rights NGOs, there were some interested. Human rights NGOs of course knew the UN
system very well and indeed had taken part in certain drafting sessions of other instruments. The
children's NGOs on the other hand didn't know the system but they had obviously the substantive
knowledge.
But each was working in its own way. They weren't collaborating and therefore, as a group, they
did not have the kind of credibility necessary for making an impact on the convention. So in 1983,
the NGOs realized that they were not having the influence that they needed to have and they got
together and created what they called an NGO Ad Hoc Group for the convention on the rights of
the child.
So for the first time, human rights and children's organizations joined hands.
And they produced their first joint proposals, coordinated joint proposals in writing, for the 1984
session of the working group. And from that time on everything changed. NGOs were given the
floor almost systematically and they had created sufficient credibility to be listened to and in
many cases, to provide effective guidance on the drafting. As of 1986, UNICEF, which had
supported the NGO group, UNICEF, itself, became involved in the substance of the drafting
process. This also had a terrific impact on the way that states regarded the drafting of the
Convention.

Overall the NGOs had a significant impact on about a third of the substantive articles and some
impact on another third. So it was quite unprecedented in terms of the drafting of an international
instrument.
Why did the process take so long? Well, partly because it was based on this consensus which
meant that every detail, every
comma, had to be agreed by the whole working group.
But also because there were some truly controversial issues. Let me give you an idea of four of
them. Firstly, what is a child? When does childhood begin? When does childhood end? There
was tremendous discussion on this, from two aspects. One, obviously, is, when does a human
being begin his or her childhood? Is it at zero, is it at conception, is it at some other point?
And then when does childhood end. Is it at adolescence, or is it at the age of majority?
In the end, it was decided not to resolve the first one, to leave it open, by having both a reference
in the preamble to the protection of children before and after birth.
And for the second, for the age at which childhood ends, it was decided that in the end it would
be 18, because that was the age at which
most countries set the age of majority.
But you can imagine that it took a great deal of discussion to reach that kind of consensus.
Then there was a totally different example. That of the reaffirmation of fundamental freedoms.
Fundamental freedoms, such as the right of association, the right to choose one's religion,
the right to receive and impart information.
These fundamental freedoms existed in the covenants on civil and political rights, which was
enforced. But frankly few people realize that these fundamental freedoms covered children as
well because there was no lower age limit of which such rights would be afforded.
So there was a big debate on whether or not they should be reaffirmed in the context of the
convention. In the end they were, and happily so.
Again, a very different example is the one on adoption.
When Poland made its revised proposal in 1979, the emphasis was on facilitating adoption for
children. But in the 80s, there were many situations particularly though not only in terms of inter
country adoption, where bad practice and indeed criminal activity had been observed.
So by the time we got to the end of the drafting process, there was much more circumspection
about adoption as a child protection measure.
And the aim as is now reflected in the final convention was less to facilitate adoption and much
more to ensure that children were protected throughout the adoption process. So now we have a
situation where instead of facilitating adoption, the first obligation of states is to insure that it
takes place
with the best interests of the child as the paramount consideration. Quite a leap, quite a change
over the ten years of the drafting.
And the final example is the controversy over the age as of which children would be allowed to
participate in an armed conflict. The convention now says 15, and that was the lowest common
denominator. It was almost not consensus. It was the lowest common denominator on which
countries could agree. And we now know, of course, that so many countries wanted to see the
minimum age of participation in conflict
at 18, in other words, that it should be prohibited completely in the convention. That there was
the initiative to draw up an optional protocol on the subject in 2000.
So that was the basic scene of the development of the convention from its initial proposal
through to adoption. And there were tensions right up to the last moment but consensus
prevailed. And what we need to do now, is to ensure that we keep the basis for making sure that
the fact consensus remains intact. >> [MUSIC]
1.2bis CRC General Principles
[MUSIC] I'd like to make a little comment on the general principles of the convention. We have
four articles of the convention which are now commonly referred to as the general principles
underlying the treaty. Article 2 on Non-discrimination. Article 3 on Best interests of the child.
Article 6 on the Right to life, survival and development. And Article 12 on the Right to be heard.
Play video starting at ::45 and follow transcript
0:45
These general principles, won't recognize as such by the draftees and proof of this, or evidence
of it is the fact that they're not grouped together in the treaty as basic to the convention.
Play video starting at :1:5 and follow transcript
1:05
They were in fact, unilaterally declared or designated as general principles by the Committee on
the Rights of the Child at essentially, its first meeting. When it was simply drawing up the list of
issues that it wanted states to cover in their initial reports.
1:29
And they felt, the committee felt, that these four articles were over arching, and needed to be
seen as general principles of the convention.
1:47
This has never been questioned since, and the general principles have remained as such since
that time, since 1991.
1:59
It's worth pointing out that no other treaty body has every designated articles in the treaty that it
deals with as general principles,
2:12
that under pin, the realization of all the other rights in that treaty.
2:21
And that, therefore, by indication, have some kind of super right status. When you look at how
the office of the High Commissioner on human rights describes these general principles.
2:38
We see that they are supposed to, and I quote, help with the interpretation of the convention as a
whole. And thereby, guide national programs of implementation, which is a big task.
2:58
Non-discrimination and the right to life are absolutely fundamental human rights that it's never felt
necessary to elevate, to the status of a general principle of a given treaty.
3:17
So, why those two?
3:20
In human rights law, best interests is a notion that applies uniquely to children.
3:30
And the committee on the rights of the child, even though it says that the best interests of the
child are a general principle of the convention. Took over 20 years to formulate a general
comment interpreting what those best interests or how those best interests should be
determined.
3:59
So it's difficult to see how best interests, Can be a basis for interpretation and or implementation
as a general principle of the convention.
4:14
And the child's right to be heard in Article 12, refers more, especially to specific circumstances.
Because, as stated in the Article 12, in particular, in any judicial and administrative proceedings
affecting the child.
4:34
So it doesn't really apply to the implementation of the convention as a whole.
4:42
I think we have to take a more critical look at why the general principles of the convention have
been so eagerly embraced. And also, what possibly are some of the unfortunate effects of having
these four articles set up as the super rights, if you wish, of the convention? [MUSIC]

1.3 Main content of the CRC and the related
States obligations
[MUSIC] Hi everybody, this video will provide you an introduction to the content of the convention
and right of the child and the main state obligation pertaining to the implementation of this
convention.
0:23
Human rights can be classified for moving different paths. To give you some example, they could
be classified on the base of the state's position in negative rights and positive rights. Negative
rights are those rights that ask the state parties to do not interfere in the exercise of these rights.
0:47
Positive rights, are those rights that requires to states party to undertake all the needed
measures in order to allow to the right holder to fully exercise the rights attributed to him or her.
They could also be classified from many historical point of view on generation.
1:08
We speak about rights of first generation, the civil and political rights. We speak about rights of
second generation, the economic, social, and cultural rights. We speak, as well about the rights
of third generation, that are also defined as solidarity rights. Those are for example the right to
peace. The rights to a clean environment or the other determination of people. Some of those
rights of third generation have been already codified at international level. By the adoption of the
international standards too. Other remain merely aspirational. We start, already, to speak about
rights of fourth generation that are meant mainly to protect human beings towards the effect on
the impact of the technologic evolution. Think about for example, the technological evolution
pertaining to the genetic manipulation. Some of those rights have been already codified
international level by that option of international standards.
2:16
The human rights could also be classified on the base of their specialization. The specialization
could refer to a specific thematic issue. For example, the convention against torture is a result of
a thematic specialization. They could also be the result of a specialization on a specific,
geographical area. For example, think about the convention related to human rights and adopted
In Europe, in Latin America, in Africa, or in the Islamic country for example. They could also be
specialized on the base of the group of people to each those human rights are dedicated. For
example we speak about the convention on the elimination of discrimination as against women.
We speak about the convention on the rights of migrant workers. We speak aswell about the
convention on the rights of the child.
3:23
The convention on the right of the child is the result of this procedure of specialization of human
rights. It is dedicated to a specific group of people, those that goes from the age of 0 to the age
of 18. And it was adopted by The General Assembly in November 1989. The convention on the
rights of the child is the most widespread and commonly used international instruments for
defining the human rights associated with the youngest generation of human beings. It provides
the formal recognition of children as social actors through the full implementation of the
participation principle contained in the article 12 of the convention on the right of the child. It is a
code of conduct for both adults in general towards children and parents for parents towards their
own children. It provides us well the minimum standard of child care protection and guardianship
for guaranteeing full and correct child development. It provides as well a list of recognized
specific and exclusive rights of the children in consideration of their peculiarity as a social and a
legal subject.
4:56
During this video, I will concentrate exclusively on the so called substantive articles of the
convention on the right of the child. Those are the articles that go from article two to articles 41.
In it we have the entire release of the rights recognized to children and the identification of the
states obligation pertaining to the implementation of this convention.
5:22
The rights included between the article two and the article 41 can be organised under three main
categories. Universal human right, the specific rights and the rights recognized to specific
category of children.
5:39
Referring tho the first category, the universal human rights, this part of the convention contains
the catalog of the rights of first and second generation. The civil and political rights and the
economic, social and culture of rights. Referring to this Second category of rights included in this
document, the so-called specific rights recognized to children. Those are for example the rights
recognized to the child in order to do not separate them from their parents, or their rights in case
of adoption, or the right for example to play.
6:20
The third and last category of rights contained in this convention and the so called rights
attributed to children. Belonging to specific Categories, specific groups. To give you some
example, there we speak about refugee children in Article 22. We speak about children with
some physical or psychological disability in Article 23. We speak about the right of children
belonging to minorities. In article 30 and we speak about children involved in for example armed
conflict in article 38. The final name of the convention on the right of the child was to recognize
Sending sure that children not only had universal human rights but also range of exclusive and
specific rights identified on the base of the peculiar characteristics of the child.
7:17
There is no doubt about the fact that the CRC ,the Convention on Right of the Child, introduced a
new approach and parameters in the field of childhood and adolescent standards.
7:31
Furthermore, the adoption of these UN convection on the rights of the child in 1989 and
answered also the debate on the State's obligations towards the implementation of these
convection.
7:47
So the committee on the rights of the child, following the approach of other UN committees such
as, for example the UN Committee on Civil and Political Rights. Puts the rights stated in the
Convention on the Right of the Child on the same level overcoming the classical distinction
between the rights of first and second generation by saying that in order to implement the human
rights of children state parties has three main level of obligation.
8:25
Obligation to respect is the negative character of convention of the right of the child, state are
required do not interfere with the exercise of this right.
8:38
An obligation to fulfill, this is the positive character of the conventional growth of the child. On the
base of this obligation now this is state in article 4.1 of the convention on the right of the child.
States' parties are required to undertake or appropriate legislative, administrative, and other
measure needed for the implementation of this convention.
9:04
Third, the obligation to protect requires State's party to protect individual against certain
interferences, perpetrated or operated by other private individuals, groups of people or
associated activists. I thank you for the attention and I will see you in the next video. [MUSIC]
1.4 UN Committee on the right of the child:
role, structure, functioning and method of
works
[MUSIC] Hello, my name is Jean Zematten. Pleased to present you a model on children's right
monitoring. The plan of my presentation is first to speak about the CRC committee. Second, the
mandate of this committee and the main menu if I can say, will be the seven steps of monitoring.
Then I will speak about the legislative activity of the committee or the committee published
general comment, day of general discussion, and I will finish with the presentation of the third
optional protocol of the convention. What we call usually the OPIC.
1:03
The CRC committee is established according to article 43 of the convention.
1:12
It is one of the nine treaty bodies in human rights. He is attached to the office of the high
commissioner of human rights but only for administrative matters since he is absolutely
independent of the high commissioner. It is composed of 18 independent experts with a 4 year
mandate and they are serving in their personal capacity. They are fully independent towards the
states.
1:45
Their committee meets in Geneva, and normally all three session barrier consisting of three week
plenary and one week pre-sessional working group. Where the committee meets with UN agency
and non-governmental organization. The committee acts in 1 or 2 chambers depending of the
workload and review around 12 to 14 country per session. So main activity of the committee's
are monitoring. It is to say to monitor how well states meetings are obligation under the
convention and to monitor as well as the two optional protocol. The protocol on children and on
conflict and the protocol on sale prostitution and child pornography. The task of the committee is
to check the measures adopted to implement the CRC, the progresses made on the enjoyment
of the rights and the obstacle met.
2:56
I remain that reporting is an obligation but a lot of state party are very late.
3:04
The committee is used to work on reports and dialogues. There is no field visit possible before
the session. No personnel and formal contact between the members, the committee and the
state party authority before the station, and the committee work on a step-by-step meeting. The
seven steps. The first step is the state party reports. State parties sending an official report to the
convention and this start the work. Then the second step, the committee will held a pre-session,
it is to say, we meet with NGO group with UN agents. Then, third step, you will send a list of
issued to the state party. And fourth, the state will answer by written to the committee. And the
main activity will be then to have a session it is to say a dialogue between the committee and the
state party in Geneva.
4:27
The result of all this work will be what we call the six steps, concluding observation condoning
concern and recommendation for the state. And then the seven step is a follow up is to
implement its concluding observation. So we can say is that the monitoring activities is more a
dialogue than a judgement is based on recommendation and not on condemnation. It consist an
incentives to change through technical help and financial support and it's based also on
interaction with the UN agents. Apart of this monitoring activities, the committee as a legislative
activity, this is to say that produced or published general comment. It is a necessity for the
committee to have this comment to explain and give guidance to the states on different concept
or article and it gives the CRC committee's position. To date, we have 18 general comment from
2001 to 2015. For example, a general comment on article 12, and also on juvenile justice, in
general comment 10. So state party have to respect the general comment, even if it is soft law.

6:10
The committee organized also, since 1992 every years, day of general discussion.
6:22
This day's focus on thematic issues like children in armed conflict, for example, children with
disability, the right of the child to be armed. And the last one was devoted to the children and the
new technology.
6:39
In the monitoring, there is a new optional protocol to the CRC which is called the OPIC or third
Optional Protocol on Communication Procedural.
6:56
Okay, we end this monitoring activity, we'll also mention the third optional protocol to the CRC on
a communication procedure. It is a new instrument that allow group of children and their
representative who claims that their right have been violated by the state to bring a procedure
communication what we call or sort of complain to the CRC committees. It's a quasi-judicial
mechanism. This optional protocol was adopted in 2011 by the UN general assembly in New
York, and is now entered into force in April 2015 and has been ratified by 18 country to note, that
the OPIC is in force. Only in the states that they have ratified it. The interesting things with this
optional protocol is the better protection given to the full range of children's right. Also the
possibility to ensure that the children have effective remedies are available to address violation
and at the end, strengthen the effective implementation of the CRC and the accountability of
state parties. Thank you for your attention. [MUSIC]
1.5 The CRC Communications procedure
[MUSIC] The committee of the rights of the child, the biggest of the three bodies, has issued a
new optional protocol. The Convention of the Rights of the Child has 41 articles where all the
issues children can have are covered, like health, like education, like social services,
0:36
like juvenile justice, and so on and so forth. We have a second protocol, the optional protocol on
children in armed conflict. And we have another protocol still, the protocol on the sale of children,
child prostitution and child pornography. All these three documents are aimed at by the third
optional protocol, the so-called communication protocol. This protocol allows children, groups of
children, or people on behalf of children when they have the agreement from the children, to
address the committee if there is a violation of a child's right. And if the state party, the state
where the child lives, has dealt with that issue already until a final stage, which means a final
decision, let's say a decision of a supreme court. If that is the case, then the child not satisfied
with the outcome or the family of the child not satisfied with the outcome, can address the
committee of the rights of the child. In case of emergency, which a case is where the life of the
child might be in danger or the health of the child might be in danger, the procedure will have
so-called interim measures. That means that measures will be taken to protect the child in the
state of the child. And the member state will be asked to protect this child specially.
2:28
The communication of the child will be dealt with expeditiously, as expeditiously as possible,
because of the emergency situation. For so-called normal situation, a situation that there is no
real emergency, the committee, when receiving such an intervention, such a complaint, will first
of all will ask the members state for its consideration. Has the member states done already
something? Has the member state no reason for not doing the something, and so on. The
member state has six months' time to deal with it. And then the committee will try to find an
answer, to send a recommendation, to find out if a follow-up for this recommendation is possible,
or if maybe a friendly settlement would be the better solution.
3:26
All this is possible in a very open and transparent way between the three partners of the issue,
the committee, the state party, and the child in question. There is another issue as well that can
be taken on and brought by the committee. This is a very rare issue. It's called the procedure of
member states involvement which means that one state can address the committee because of a
widespread violation of children's right of another member state. I repeat member states because
the committee can only be competent for those states that the member states through the
Convention of the Rights of the Child, which are, at the moment, all states of the world with one
exception. But concerning the two protocols, it is the same situation. The committee can only be
involved if the member state in question has ratified the respective protocol. This protocol is not
established to be a court for anyone, nor for the child, nor for the member state. It is there to
assist member states to solve problems between the member state and the child. And to assist
also the member state to check if all the mechanisms for protecting the children and for dealing
with children in a correct way are established and functioning. [MUSIC]
1.6 Overview regional monitoring system
[MUSIC]
0:11
>> Now, we move to the discussion on regional monitoring system on children's human rights.
This video includes three sequences. Each one of them is dedicated to a specific regional
experience. The African, the European and the inter-American one.
0:37
>> I am going to talk about monitoring children rights in Africa and the majority of the monitoring
of children rights in Africa is actually directly related to the African charter on the rights and
welfare of the child, which is the original teach body, which is comprehensive issues pertains to
children's rights. So the main monitoring body for these charter is the African Committee of
Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.
1:02
The tricky body is established under the probation of the charter and the composition, in the
terms of its composition, it has 11 members that are actually elected by the African Union
Assembly and they are nominated, of course, by state parties to the charter. Members of the
committee are actually supposed to be independent. They are also expected to have, as the
charter says, high moral standing. And obviously, they need to have a lot of experience on issues
pertaining to children's rights, but it doesn't necessarily mean being a lawyer, it can be any
diverse disciplines. They can be lawyers, social workers. We've had judges. We've had other
professions on the committee as long as they've had some experience with children's rights, they
are eligible for election. The independence element is extremely important. Members have to be
independent from any high government office. You don't report back as a member to the state
that nominated you. Your responsibility is actually to interpret and monitor implementation of
children's rights as it relates to the African charter on the rights, and welfare of the child. The
members serve in their individual capacity, but also on a part-time basis. So all the members that
are currently, for instance, sitting on the committee have full-time jobs and they look at the time
for the work of the committee. The committee meets generally twice a year. There has been
exceptional circumstances where an extraordinary session had been called for. For instance, in
2014, the committee met for its first extraordinary session in October. First of all, to deal with the
back low golf state party report and secondly to deal with urgent matters. Our mandate, as a
committee for monitoring children's rights in Africa has three aspects. First, we deal with state
party reports. States are expected to report two years after ratification for the in-child report and
every three years thereafter. So the committee deals with state party reports the same way, for
instance, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child deals with state party reports from states.
The second mandate that we have is to undertake investigative missions and this can be
triggered by an application from a civil society. It can be triggered by an application from a child.
It can also be triggered by an application from the state and I will say a few words here on
investigative mission that we have undertaken so far. The third mandate that we have relates to
dealing with individual complaints. The individual complaints mechanism is provided for clearly
within the model instrument, which is the African charter. And so far, the committee has already
completed three individual complaints and we are currently busy with two. Now in terms of state
party reports, the reporting frequency by states has been relatively slow and this can be
explained, because of a number of reasons. Because of, for instance, the fact that states have a
number of multiple reporting obligations. Resources is the other challenge. But also to a certain
extent, the inadequate supports that they receive from various stakeholders, such as UN
agencies and so forth has been one of the limitations. In terms of the investigative missions,
there was an investigative mission that was undertaken to Uganda, Northern Uganda,
particularly. This is the context of allegations or violations of children's rights in the context of the
Civil War that was on holding at that time in the lower resistance army, the rebel group that was
waging war at that time and that was done in 2004. Another investigative mission has been
undertaken to central Africa Republic. Again, this was done in the context of the recent armed
conflict in [INAUDIBLE] unfolded in 2014. The more recent investigative mission that the
committee has undertaken was to Tanzania. This was in the context of the killings of children with
albinism for their body parts and other superstitious thinking that relates to persons with albinism,
and this was just completed a few months back now in 2015. In terms of individual complains,
the committee has dealt with three as I mentioned earlier. The first one was against the
government of Kenya and the issue was about statelessness in nationality, particularly for
persons, children of Nubian decent who historically migrated to Kenya from Sudan, but have
been living in Kenya since the 1950s or even earlier. And in the particular case, the committee
found multiple violation of the African charter on the rights and welfare of the church and
indicated this to the government of Kenya and issued a number of recommendation. The second
one pertained to a alleged to violation of children's rights by the government of Uganda in the
context of the armed conflict. In that regard as well, the committee also found violation pertaining
to children's rights at least in one of the elements of the alleged violation. Thirdly, we dealt with
the communication that was launched against the government of Senegal and the main
contention in this particular case was the issue of using children in the form of begging. Now in
terms of implementation of these decisions, there is a mixed bag. In all occasions, countries have
implemented the partially, but there is a lot of room for improvement. One of the cool things that
the committee does when it issues recommendations in the context of individual complains is to
appoint one its 11 members to serve as the focal person to followup on the implementation of the
decisions by the states. One of the things that I also need to mention is that the committee is
currently working to have direct access to the African court on human people's rights, so that
some of this individual complains that are not fully complied used by the state party can actually
be referred by the committee to the African court which unlike the committee can actually issue
binding judgement.
6:58
>> Today, I will deal with the protection of children's rights in Europe. I will first sketch, give a
sketch of the organization under which whose auspices the protection is taking place as the
Council of Europe.
7:15
Secondly, I will deal with European Convention on Human Rights and its supervisory body,
European Court of Human Rights. And thirdly and finally, I will highlight one case before the
European Court of Human Rights.
7:33

The Council of Europe has been created in 1949, just after the Second World War and it deals
with three issues. Democracy, the rule of law and human rights.
7:50
In the ambit of it's activities, it has adopted a large number of human rights treaties.
Play video starting at :8: and follow transcript
8:00
The most famous of these treaties,
8:03
the jewel in the crown is the European Convention on Human Rights.
8:09
This treaty was adopted in 1950 and has a supervisory mechanism which is called the European
Court of Human Rights.
8:21
The court has its seats in France, in Strassburg.
8:26
The European Convention on Human Rights, essentially contains civil and political rights. The
rights to life, the prohibition of torture. The right to freedom of assembly. The right to privates and
family life.
8:40
It does not, however, contain specific children's rights.
8:47
Any attempts subsequently to the adoption of the European Convention to act children's rights in
an additional protocol to the original convention have not been successful. The latter does not
mean, however, that European courts cannot and does not adjudicate cases on issues
concerning children.
9:16
One of the cases I would like to highlight today is a case against Belgium, which is called the
Mubilanzila Mayeka and Kaniki Mitunga case versus Belgium. Dating back to 2003, better known
as the Tabitha Case. Before going further into that case, I would just like to emphasize what the
European Court of Human Rights can do.
9:47
When it receives a complaint from an individual on the behavior, action or lack of action of states,
it can decide whether state has violated one or more provisions of the European Convention on
Human Rights.
10:08
Once the court has decided the case, it renders a judgement which is binding upon the state.
10:18
Therefore, a state, once having been found in violation of a right of freedom has to act upon it
and try to remedy the violation of that right or freedom. I will now go into the case.
10:38
Tabitha, being a resident from the Democratic Republic of the Congo was born in 1997. Three
years later, her mother left for Canada where she was given asylum. She got the refugee status.
Five years after Tabitha was born, she arrived with her Dutch uncle in Brussels.
11:10
She arrived, however, without papers. Her idea was to take a flight to Canada where she would
be joined with her mother.
11:23
The Belgian authorities took her into detention.
11:28
She was put in a closed detention center. Her asylum request was denied and a few months
later, she was deported. She was refought to Kinshasa to the Congo.
11:47
In the petition before the European court, allegations were made that the way the Belgian
authorities received her, the circumstances of her detention and her deportation amounted inter
alia to violations of article three of the European convention and article eight of the European
convention.
12:12
Being the prohibition of torture in human and degrading treatment on the one hand and the right
to family life on the other hand.
12:24
The European Court of Human Rights found multiple violations of both rights.
12:34
Both with regard to the young girl, the beater as well as with regards to the rights of her mother
who was living at that time in Canada
12:48
as to the way to beat her was treated in Belgium. That amounted to a violation of article three.
12:56
The young girl was put into a closed detention center.
13:02
No guardian or legal representative was appointed.
13:07
No adequate psychological help was offered to this young, unaccompanied minor and she didn't
receive education.
13:21
With regard to the situation of the mother, the court founds that the simple facts that the mother
has only being given a telephone number on which she could call her young daughter also
amounted to a violation of article three of the European Convention. The way the deportation had
been arranged also amounted to a violation of article three. The fact that Tabitha was sent back
right in Kinshasa without the Belgian authorities have been made some efforts to find relatives or
somebody else to attend to her upon arrival amounted to a violation of article three of the
European convention.
14:21
The fact that the mother had not been informed about deportation of Tabitha, also amounted to a
violation of the same provision. The circumstances of the detention also amounted to a violation
of article eight. The young girl was kept in a close detention center, which was not adapted to her
needs.
14:45
In fact, the court said that she should have been kept in an adopted state institution or have been
put into foster care as demanded by the UN Convention on the right of the child. The deportation
of the young girl also amounted to a violation of article eight. In fact, since the girl was an
unaccompanied minor, the state was obliged under article eight to facilitate the family
reunification with her mother in Canada. So as a result, the court found multiple violations of
different professions under the European Convention on Human Rights. Through this case, we
see that European court is becoming more and more sensitive towards children's rights issues.
15:47
Unaccompanied minors belong to a vulnerable part of the population, which need special
protection. If that protection is not given by a state to such a person, that state can be held
responsible under the European Convention on Human Rights.
16:10
>> The Inter-American Human Rights System was created in 1948 within the Organization of
American States. All states of the Americas are part of the Organization of American States, that
are in total 35 estates. The Inter-American Human Rights System has two main supervisory
organisms. Namely, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and Inter-American Court
on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights can receive petitions and
they can also published report, usually those reports Inter-American Commission describes their
critical situation of violation in human rights in the Americas. The Inter-American Code of Human
Rights can receive cases from the Inter-American Commission and can declare the international
responsibility of the states when they commit violation of human rights. From the perspective of
children's rights, the system doesn't have any specific treaty on children's rights. The system
doesn't incorporate the principle of the best interest of the child and the systems does identifying
what is a child. However, the Inter-American Court using article 29 of the American Convention
which gives competence to the inter-American Court to interpret all the human rights treaties has
indicated that a child is a person under 18 years old and it has also indicated that all states have
obligation to take into account in the law the principle of the best interest of the child. In that
regard, the court has used the Convention of the Rights of the Children, which has incorporated
this principle and also has indicated the child is any person under 18 years old. [MUSIC]
1.7 The role of the INHRIs on Children’s
rights in the monitoring process at national
and local level
[MUSIC] Independent National Human Rights Institution are also called ombudsperson.
Ombudsperson on human rights, or in our case, we will focus on ombudsperson on children's
rights.
0:24
Ombuds is a Scandinavian word, which is used to indicate that a person is acting on behalf of
another person as an intercessor between the person and some sort of authority. In a more
formal sense, the ombudsperson is ordinarily a government official whose aim or whose job is to
make the system more efficient by following up on citizen complaints. The ombuds office was
established by the Scandinavian Parliament in 1809. This first experience proved to be so
effective that the government decided to establish specialized ombuds dealing for example, with
ethnic discrimination, consumer affair, equal opportunities, and as well, children's rights. Since
1990s, independent human rights institutions for children have emerged globally, as an influential
body for the promotion of the children's rights, in the decision making procedures, and in the
public debates. In this graphic representation, you have the situation duration of the ombuds for
children in 1996. So this was the situation identified by UNICEF in 1996, and here you have the
evolution in 2012. UNICEF in 2012 identified more than 200 ombuds of first children in over 17
countries on the globe. Graphically, here you have the representation of the spreading of the
ombuds office organized per region from 1989 to 2012. But why do we need a ombuds children?
An answer to this question can be identified within the main international standards pertaining to
the figure of the ombuds for children. In particular, in Article 4 Paragraph 1 of the Convention on
the Rights of the Child, the committee invite states' parties to undertake all legislative
administrative and other measures needed for the implementation of this specific convention.
2:59
In order to identify these appropriate measures, in 2003 the Committee on the Right of the Child
adopted a general common number five. In the list of these measures needed for the
implementation of the CRC, is also included to the establishment of a numbered office for

children. To this figure, already in 2002, the Committee on the Right of the Child, dedicated a
general comment, general comment number two, which is deeply rooted in a General Assembly
Resolution of 1993. Dedicated to the status of National Intuition for the promotion and protection
of Human Rights. This resolution is better known as the Paris Principle.
3:49
But a more precise answer, or why we need an ombuds for children is contained in the
paragraph five of the General Common number two. The one adopted in 2002 by the committee
and write up the chart. In it, the committee underlined, saying this paragraph five, that we need
an ombuds for children because children's rights deserve high priority. Children's rights needs
visibility because their opinion are still taken into account during the public debates. Children has
no right to vote, and have a small role in political process. They encounter challenges in using
the judicial system to protect their rights or to seek remedies for violation. And as well as in
having access to organization, they may protect their own rights. But if we try to identify the main
characteristics of this institution, the ombuds office should be constitutionally entrenched and
legislatively mandated.
5:02
It should be complementary to effective governmental structure for childrens. As independent
monitoring authority, performing a sort of external monitoring activities on the State's compliance
towards the implementation of the convention on the rights of the child. It should be as well as
essentially, an independent institution, free to set-up its own agenda and to identify its priority of
action. This institutions take a variety of forms and go by different names. To give you some
example, they could be augmentative and integrated within larger independent nation on Human
Rights Institution. They could be specialized and separated, and standing on their own. They
could be directed to by one director or one person, or by a commission with a chair, for example.
6:05
And they go, as I said before, by different names. To give you some example, in English we
speak about ombudsman for children, Child Commissioner, Child Advocates, Children Rights or
Human Rights Commission.
6:21
In French, we speak about mediator or defender. In Spanish, we speak about defonseria or
procuraduria. But in any case, they share similar mandates. First of all, they provide an
assessment of the impact of governmental policies and evaluation on their compliance with the
CRC. This is what is called the external monitoring. They conduct studies on children's needs
and risks. They submit proposal on laws and policies. They receive individual complaints and
provide remedies for violations.
7:02
They realize consultation and collaboration with children with the idea of creating a space for
dialogue about childrens in societies and between children and the state. They realize
investigation. They realize mediation between institution. They realize custom activities of
cooperation with civil society and international institution. They monitor on media for example,
and they monitor on the private economic sector. For example, think about the commercialization
of a product dedicated to children.
7:45
As you can understand, the ombuds office is a public and governmental institution, financially
supported by the states. And performing check and balance activities by monitoring the states
compliance with the CRC requirements. Monitoring the activities of the private sector. Mainly
monitoring the work, for example, of the civil societies, the markets as private economic power,
the media. Always in constant collaboration with children. Therefore in an idea of good
government said, the ombuds for children, make sure that each entitiy within the public or the
private sector operates within its prescribed range of power and in the respect of children's rights
[MUSIC]
1.8 NGOs’ role in the monitoring process
[MUSIC]
0:11
Hello everybody, it's my pleasure to present you the issue of NGOs' role in the monitoring
process. As you know, a state which has ratified the convection on rights of the child has the
legal obligation and of a convention to submit a report two years after ratification of a convention
and afterwards each five years to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. Explaining what
it has done for improving the implementation of children's rights in its borders. But there are other
institutions, which may, if they want, submit a report to The UN Committee on the Rights of the
Child. And these institutions are specialized institutions like Ombuds Office, UNICEF, other UN
bodies, like for example ILO or other organization. And under other organization, you have civil
society for NGOs. This is article 45 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
1:12
So why it is so important to report, as I mentioned for a state, it's a legal obligation. For civil
society, it's a very good opportunity to give its own opinion on certain issue, or on the
implementation of children's rights in general on a border or in the country in a specific state.
1:35
For the Committee on the Rights of the Child, it's a very good opportunity to have another point
of view about the situation of children in a specific state. For the UN agency, it's also very
important to have reporting and to have a system of reporting because it's an ongoing process of
money, touring, and advocacy for the improvement of children's rights in the specific states and
of course in general. We can say that it has international cooperation.
2:09
I am going to explain to you the reporting procedure. First of all, you have a state, which has to
submit the report.
2:24
Between six months and two years, NGOs have the opportunity to submit their own report on
specific issue or on the implementation of children's rights in general.
2:39
This report of NGO is called the shadow report. Between 6 months and 2 years, after having
received the NGO shadow reports, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child organized the
pre-sessional working group. The pre-session, and there is a deadline a 3 months at least, this
pre-session is very important, why? Because it's an opportunity which is given to NGOs, civil
society, and to be an agency to present that point of view about the situation on the children's
rights in a specific state. But also, to have a dialogue with the UN experts. It's a private meeting,
state representative are not allowed, as well as mass medias. Important to say also that at this
pre-session there is the NGO forum. The NGO forum, it's a gathering of different NGOs
concerned by a specific state or by certain issues related to other state. It's a good opportunity to
network all together.
4:01
After the pre-session, there is a deadline of one or two weeks where the UN Committee on the
Rights of the Child send complimentary questions to the state. So list of issues to the state to the
government.
4:30
The state has, of course, three months to send written replies to the UN Committees.
4:47
After having received these written replies, the UN Committee on Rights of the Child organized
the important plenary session. This plenary session is the official one where the state is
represented and has the questions and issues to be debated to the UN Committee. And you can
attend, but they cannot ask question and they cannot intervene. It's only a dialogue between the
experts of the UN Commitee on the Rights of the Child and state's representative.
5:26
Afterwards, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child is going to issue concluding
observation.
5:37
This concluding observation do mention what the state has done or not done or partially done
and what it has to do to improve the implementation of children's rights in this state. These
concluding observations are very important for everybody. Of course for the state because he
knows what he has to do, but also for civil society over UN agency. This is why what we have to
do afterwards is to implement this concluding observation.
6:10
And this is the duty of a state of course but also of the NGOs and different UN agency. And after
this implementation in the deadline of five years, state has to submit its report again. So it's an
ongoing circle, an ongoing procedure, two reports in front of a UN Committee on the Rights of
the Child.
6:40
The publication of the CRC of a concluding observation is very important, and everybody has the
duty of, also the obligation, to diffuse it and to make it know. Assume everybody can be
concerned by it. Maybe all the concluding observation or by certain specific issue and has
permission to implement it. After the publication of the concluding observation, it's very important
to diffuse them, so everybody, UN agency, NGOs, professional, and of course state, can take this
concluding observation in order to implement it. Generally, for the state, but also some specific
issue for NGOs or concerned institutions. A concluding observation is worthless if it's not
implemented. Thank you. [MUSIC]
1.9 Children's subjective indicators:
children’s participation in monitoring
[MUSIC] Hello. The history of human and social sciences was based during many years on the
collection of objective data. It was on the decade of the 60s of the last century in of big
movement, the so called social indicators movement, started to depend how important it is to
collect subjective data in order to know many aspects of the reality, and particularly to be able to
take positions to decision making. And at that point, we are started to be more and more
interested in having data about people's opinions, perceptions, even expectations.
1:02
This kind of data has been progressively incorporated to official statistics. At the end of the 20th
century, for example, we see that the Sarkozy Commission and then later United Kingdom also
incorporated subjective indicators even of well being but also of happiness, of life satisfaction, of
the citizens in the official statistics.
1:28
It was not only until the end of the last century that we started to discuss if it also should be of
any political interest of any social interest to have systematic data collection from children. That
means to also collect data from polls
1:50
in which children give their opinions, give their satisfaction with the services they are provided
with different aspects of their lives.
1:59
And that made us what we call the child indicators movement and the child indicator movement
was based in some important changes in theoretical thinking about data provided by children.
2:17

First of all, we started to think that we not only meet the negative data. I mean traditional, you
have been collecting data of our children's situations like mortality, like health problems, like
delinquency, like maltreatment, and so on.
2:39
But we started to discuss that it was also very important to understand our society and to
improve situation involving people in general, and children in adolescence in particular, to have
data on their positives aspects on their lives. That means, data of their self-esteem, about data
receive financial support about their subjective will win, lays satisfaction, and so on. So we
moved from a negative to a positive perspective.
3:14
And we also moved from only collecting data about basic needs, even survival, to collect data
related to development of children's populations and the promotion of their quality at large.
3:34
The incorporation of children right was also an important fact because we want to go not only to
understand the situation of basic right of children but also the right of children to participate in the
societies they live in.
3:53
So we moved from collecting data only for the well becoming of children
Play video starting at :4: and follow transcript
4:00
to collect data of the present well-being of children. We were very much worried on how children
will become as adults. Children will be citizens in the future, children will get, or not, a good job in
the future.
4:16
And now, we think that children are already citizens in present so we are worried on the present
situation of children, and particularly on the present situation from their own point of view.
4:30
So altogether that means an important overall change,
4:36
and we have got to the conclusion that getting children, sorry granting children their rights is one
thing. But providing them with an environment can attain to their highest potential is quite another
broader perspective which we named the quality of life perspective. The subjective will be in
perspective.
5:03
It was UNICEF that in 2007, published the first international report, the Report Card Number 7, in
which combined objective and subjective indicators of children.
5:17
That means based on data provided by children.
5:22
And from there we have seen that more and more publication have tried to incorporate indicators
of subjective well being of children on their life satisfaction and other kinds of data that was
provided by children and can be used as indicators of their situation. Or a social dynamics
involving children. We notice that we lack from systematic data collection, to be able to know
which are the normative data in each country, in each culture, even it need language because
sometimes data collection collecting different languages has a slight differences because of the
meaning of words and different languages.
6:18
At the end of the listeria, beginning of dysentery, we started to discussing some international
meetings. The deep would be important to have more international available databases.
6:32
Which could be used as indicators of different situations. And this international database would
mean international data provided by children themselves.
6:45
In fact, there are only a few available databases in which children have provided information. An
important one is HBSC, the international database on school health,
7:01
which is base on a questionnaire administer to children in many country.
7:06
Another international database is the very well known Pizza which is for good on school
outcomes. And after that there's not many other accessible databases and if a few ones include
all the very, very few countries, so a group of researchers which are associated to the
international society of child indicators. We started to discuss that they could be important
7:35
to create a new database including children's report on their daily activities on their satisfaction
with different. The services they are provided on satisfaction with different aspects of their lives,
and so on.
7:49
And it has been a long process, which started in 2007. But in 2015, we have published the first
international report, including representative samples of children, from 15 countries in the world,
from all continents, and from very different cultures. It's focused on children eight, ten, and 12
years old, so it includes data of younger children than the other up to now existing international
databases. And we have published this data, the first report of each country report and the
overall report in our website, which we call this website the Children's Worlds project. If you go to
internet and write in Google search or any other search, Children's World project will get plenty of
information. And you can download for free this report. And this database is going to be publicly
accessible in one year time. After the recessors have been able to analyze and publish the first
data results.
9:05
Well, that's the first time that we are able to calculate the normative data of all of our population,
of representative sample of children of these ages 8, 10, and 12, in so many countries. Of
course, 15 countries is not enough, our project aims to increase the number of countries
included. To increase the number of data collections so that we can have a regular set of data to
analyze children's perspective. However, that's a very important step. If we have normative data
of one country then we can try to identify which groups of the population,subgroup of the
population, which situations involving children, show significantly lower subjective well being,
significantly lower life satisfaction. And that is an important focus, which comes from our
research. [NOISE] We need to identify from children's perspective, not only from adult's
perspective. Which are these groups of people in order to make decisions, in order to propose
political changes and to improve these groups of children subjective well-being, quality of life,
satisfaction and happiness.
10:33
And we have a standard for example in some countries to collect data from children in care,
children in the child protection system. For example, we have data available at this moment in
Brazil, in Spain, in Israel. So we can compare this to group of the population with the mean
10:55
with the overall population because we have the meaning results of the overall children of these
age groups. But we can also identify many other situation affecting children, and some of these
situation is only possible when you go in as children. For example, is the child a victim of
bullying? Perhaps others are not aware enough. Even are those in contact with the child. But if
the child is reporting, he's submitted to physical or emotional bullying. We can know the overall
fears in one country, one population.
11:35
By the results of pools of questionnaires that children have answered.
11:41
And that's our present brochures, we are just trying to increase the number of countries that we
have available data, in order to calculate the mean value of subjective well-being. And
satisfaction of their overall population of children. Of course, we would like also to have children
of more ages than the ones I have sculpted now. But we also have to start to identify subgroups.
I mean minorities, I mean for example, language speaking different groups in each country. Rule
or and so on. And our challenge is to identify
12:26
which could be the focus to improve children's will be.
12:32
The group with very low well being are focus for change, it's easy to improve the subjective realm
of those people having very low subjective realm. It's almost impossible to increase the
happiness of the very happy. But we need to know which is the main value of the happiness of
the subjective realm over all lights of affection of the majority of children in each society in order
to give the following step based on sensitive and reliable data. And I think that was the goal of
this presentation, thank you very much. [MUSIC]

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