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Committee on the Rights of the Child 91st Session

Join in the 91st Session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child via in-person or remote participation at Palais Wilson in Geneva from 29 August to 23 September 2022!

Registration: Please use the given browsers to register here: Google Chrome, Mozilla, Firefox, Safari, Microsoft Edge or Opera

All public meetings of the Committee will be available through webcast live on the website: https://webtv.un.org/meetings-events.

Please note that the Conference Rooms at Palais Wilson, Ground Floor and First Floor, are open to the public, during the session.  As more information becomes available, it will be posted to the event site here: indico.un.org/event/1001255/overview.

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Children’s Rights-NY, please visit childrightsny.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Intergenerational Solidarity, please email the co-chair at susanneseperson@gmail.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Human Rights, please email the co-chairs at bknotts@uua.org or bobbinassar@yahoo.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Education, Learning, and Literacy, please visit facebook.com/NGOCELLatUN. For more information on the NGO Major Group, please visit ngomg.org.

Putting SDG 4 Back on Track After COVID-19: The Essential Role of Multilingualism in Education

A High-Level Political Forum Side Event on 11 July 2022

co-hosted by the NGO Committee on Language and Languages, the Universal Esperanto Association, and the Permanent Mission of Spain to the United Nations

Register here by July 10!

About:

Even before COVID-19, alarms were sounded that progress on SDG 4 was too slow and that the achievement of its targets by 2030 was in jeopardy. Linguistic inequality in access to education has been a key factor. The 2016 Global Education Monitoring Report showed that 40% of the global population was not accessing education in a language they understand. The onset of the pandemic exacerbated such inequalities as over 1.6 billion learners experienced school closures, cutting them off from language and literacy learning opportunities. Moreover, the digital divide prevented vulnerable populations, especially in least developed countries, from accessing online education, including resources for language development. In order to achieve inclusive and equitable education for linguistically diverse student populations, multilingualism must be foregrounded in post-pandemic educational planning.

Accordingly, this side event focuses on recommendations for the role of languages in education put forth in Reimagining Our Futures Together: A New Social Contract for Education, the UNESCO report on the Futures of Education initiative. Specifically, it brings together leading experts in the field of language education from diverse global contexts who address what it means in practice to take a multilingual perspective on the targets of SDG 4. Drawing upon empirical research and documented best practices, they demonstrate how schools can cultivate multilingual resources, including mother tongues, major world languages, national and regional languages, Indigenous languages, and international languages like Esperanto to achieve inclusive and equitable education that empowers students as global citizens prepared for participation in social, economic, and political life.

Programme:

  • Pedagogical Translanguaging to Make the Most of Multilingualism, Professor Jasone Cenoz, University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU
  • Multilingualism as a Resource for Learning and a Decolonial Strategy, Dr. Xolisa Guzula, University of Capetown, School of Education

Moderated by Professor Humphrey Tonkin and Professor Francis M. Hult with welcoming remarks by Mr. Guillermo Escribano, Director General for the Spanish Language around the World at the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Spain

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CoNGO Notes: The NGO Committee on Language and Languages is a Substantive Committee of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations – for more information, please email the co-chairs at tonkin@hartford.edu or fmhult@umbc.edu. Likewise, for more information on the NGO Committee on Social Development, please visit ngosocdev.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Education, Learning, and Literacy, please visit facebook.com/NGOCELLatUN. 

Global Forum for Children and Youth (CY21)

Dear colleagues and partners,On December 7-9, UNICEF and partners will convene the Global Forum for Children and Youth (CY21), which includes leaders, experts, change-makers, and influencers together with children and youth to discuss and accelerate proven and new solutions, inspire commitments to create change and mobilize knowledge and resources to advance child rights to meet the SDGs by 2030. We encourage all our partners to follow the forum online.  Ahead of the event, we would like to request you to please share the CY21 teaser video on your platforms. The video assets (with editable files) and suggested post copy are available to download here. The daily agenda during the event are found on these links:7 December8 December9 December The Global Forum for Children and Youth convenes children and young people themselves, along with leaders across the United Nations, government, business, philanthropy, and civil society, as well as authors, artists, and influencers. You can find the list of speakers here. You may also find other available resources to support you on the links below.

Here is the link to stream the forum online.

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Children’s Rights, please visit childrightsny.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Education, Learning, and Literacy, please visit facebook.com/NGOCELLatUN. For more information on the NGO Committee on Human Rights, please email the co-chairs at bobbinassar@gmail.com or bknotts@uua.org. 

The impact of the pandemic on the mental health of children & youth

The NGO Committee on Children’s Rights invites you to our October meeting in recognition of UN World Mental Health month. Register here!

Invited panel of experts:

  • Kira Herbert, Educator, Croton-Harmon UFSD, BS Education, MS Education, NYS Teacher of Excellence
  • Erlanger A. Turner, Ph.D. Clinical Psychologist Pepperdine University

Moderator: Professor Roseanne Flores, Ph.D Dept. Psychology at Hunter College, NY & ECOSOC Representative, American Psychological Association (APA)

We’ll also hear the voices of school children and youth expressing their experiences during the pandemic. For questions or more information, please contact the Committee Secretary at marlena2173@gmail.com.

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CoNGO Notes: The NGO Committee on Children’s Rights-NY is a Substantive Committee of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations. For more information on the NGO Committee on Intergenerational Solidarity, please email the vice chair at susanneseperson@gmail.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Social Development, please visit ngosocdev.org.

The State of the World’s Children Report launch

Dear colleagues and partners,

Every year, UNICEF releases its flagship The State of the World’s Children global report, examining a key issue affecting children. These have ranged from children with disabilities, conflict and war, child labour, urbanization, early childhood development, and much more, making it the most comprehensive analysis of global trends that impact children.

This year, for the first time in UNICEF’s history, The State of the World’s Children will focus on child and adolescent mental health and well-being, reflecting a priority focus on mental health across UNICEF’s global programming, advocacy and communications. Growing awareness about the importance of mental health, the impact of COVID-19, and increased evidence on the value of optimizing mental health and developmental trajectories for children and adolescents, have combined to create fresh momentum and urgency around mental health of children, youth and caregivers.

The State of the World’s Children 2021 will present new data and trends on mental health, as well as perspectives from young people, and will help to strengthen UNICEF’s policy outreach and targeted advocacy at global, regional and national levels, as well as drive action and investment to protect and promote the mental health, well-being and development of children, young people, and their families.
The State of the World’s Children 2021 report will be available here on October 5th 00/01 GMT.

Key themes will include:

  • Mental health is central to children’s health and overall well-being: As Brock Chisholm, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) first Director-General, stated, “Without mental health there can be no true physical health.”
  • Mental health is a continuum: Everyone sits somewhere on the mental health continuum, and many, if not most, people move along it at some stage – from experiencing good mental health to anything from short-term distress to long-term disabling conditions.
  • Mental health must be understood along the life course: Every stage of life – from the period around pregnancy, to early childhood and the first decade, and on to adolescence and the second decade – offers unique moments when mental health can be supported and when it may be at risk.
  • Social determinants help shape mental health outcomes: Biology and genetics play a role in determining mental health, but so too do protective and risk factors in the child’s family, in school, in the community, and across society. Understanding these is key to developing policy approaches.
  • COVID-19: The report will address evidence for the mental health impact of COVID-19, as well as challenges in humanitarian situations and emergencies.
  • Mental health requires a pyramid of interventions: A range of multi-sectoral services and institutions are needed to promote good mental health for every child, protect vulnerable children, and care for children facing the greatest challenges. Launch plans

We will launch the report on 5th October at the Ministerial Summit on Mental Health organized by the French Government in Paris, alongside a series of ‘satellite’ launch events worldwide and a new mental health communications campaign.

On 5 and 6 October 2021, the French Minister for Solidarity and Health, Olivier Véran, and the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, will host the “Mind Our Rights, Now!” Global Mental Health Summit in Paris. The summit will be attended by high-level policy makers, international organizations, health professionals, experts and civil society actors, in addition to foundations and renowned academics, all of whom aim to strengthen international efforts that support mental health, promote respect for rights and foster worldwide innovative experiences. The summit aims to sustain the momentum generated by the International Conference on Mental Health hosted by the Netherlands in October 2019, and Ministerial MH Summit in the UK before it.

Ten thematic areas have been selected to advance the objectives of the summit and are a core part of the programme. UNICEF is co-leading the workstream focusing on Children and Adolescents, with WHO and War Child, aiming to develop a set of recommendations for mental health and psychosocial support for children, adolescents, and families, which will align closely with the SOWC report. The SOWC launch is officially part of the programme on the 5th October.

The global launch will initiate a series of regional and national events around the world, involving UNICEF offices and key partners, in which we aim to spark a global conversation about child and adolescent mental health and wellbeing. ‘Satellite’ events are being explored in strategic locations across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, as well as the UAE, China and the US.

UNICEF will accompany the report launch with our new public engagement campaign, Mental Health #OnMyMind, which will provide a unifying creative concept and communications framework for all UNICEF offices and partners in support our global mental health advocacy strategy objectives over the next four years. A social media pack is available here.

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Mental Health, please visit ngomentalhealth.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Children’s Rights, please visit childrightsny.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Intergenerational Solidarity, please email the vice chair at susanneseperson@gmail.com.

Strong Families for Strong Communities: Examples from Turtle Island

Family is the foundational institution for Indigenous Peoples and communities yet many policies and practices such as boarding schools and the Indian Act have undermined Indigenous families resulting in a legacy of abuse, intergenerational trauma, and large numbers of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW). This presentation will describe the centrality of families for the Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island (North America), review policies and programs that have undermined Indigenous families, and discuss opportunities to support Indigenous families

Presenter:

Dr. Hilary Weaver (Lakota) Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion University at Buffalo (State University of New York)

Discussant:

Dr. Elaine Congress Associate Dean, Fordham University Board Member of UN NGO Committee on Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Questions? Contact Elaine Congress at congress@fordham.edu

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, please visit facebook.com/NGOCoRIP. For more information on the NGO Committee on the Family-NY, please visit ngofamilyny.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Social Development, please visit ngosocdev.org.

ASPBAE Asia Pacific Policy Dialogue on Education Financing

Dear ASPBAE Members and Friends,
We cordially  invite you to join the ASPBAE Asia Pacific Policy Dialogue on Education Financing which will be held on Monday, 26 April 2021, at 1:00 pm Manila time (Philippine Standard Time).
This is a key Asia Pacific event as part of the Global Action Week for Education (GAWE) held from 26-30 April and the One Billion Voices Campaign, both coordinated by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) and supported by ASPBAE. Each regional network member of GCE is holding an event on a different day of GAWE, and the Asia Pacific event by ASPBAE is the first one to start the week on Monday 26 April.
We hope you can join us in this event and encourage your colleagues to participate as well. There is no registration process required. Join the Zoom Meeting here:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86001255005?pwd=M0h2ZVV3ZGY5VG51Zzl5OUZORDBlQT09
Meeting ID: 860 0125 5005; Passcode: 850131

The event will be attended by three senior government officials, one each from Timor Leste, the Philippines and Bangladesh speaking, along with a presentation from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), as well as a presentation from ASPBAE and a youth representative from NCE Nepal. There will be space at the end of the speeches and inputs for a number of questions to the speakers.

Objective:

The objective of the Asia Pacific Regional Dialogue on Education Financing is to encourage governments to mobilise national resources that can ensure inclusive education systems and programmes that prioritise the most marginalised.

Rationale:

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a huge gap between education spending, and what was actually needed to achieve SDG4. The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly exacerbated this gap, and has led to a curtailment of funding by donors and governments for the education of its people. More than ever, it is important for governments to step up and protect national education budgets, and even better, to increase them, especially to enable education access to rural and remote communities, people with disabilities, those that are missing out on school, unemployed youth, and those that have no access to online learning opportunities.

This online event is part of the Global Action Week for Education (GAWE), an annual international week of campaigning for improved national education policies and increased national education budgets. The theme of GAWE this year is education financing towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4). GAWE is part of a year-long campaign organised by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) called One Billion Voices.

Rallying Call: ‘Protect Education Budgets: reach the most marginalised’

Main speakers:

  • Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, Chair, Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture
  • Dr. António Guterres, Vice Minister for Education, Youth and Sport, Timor-Leste
  • Mr. Md. Mahbub Hossain, Secretary, Secondary and Higher Education Division, Ministry of Education in Bangladesh
  • GPE presentation: recorded message from Ms Margarita Focas Licht, Chief, Effective Partnerships
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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Education, Learning, and Literacy, please visit facebook.com/NGOCELLatUN. For more information on the NGO Committee on Financing for Development, please visit ngosonffd.org.

Adverse Childhood Events: Protecting, Preventing, and Healing

The NGO Committee on the Family New York invites you to attend “Adverse Childhood Events: Protecting, Preventing, and Healing” on Thursday, February 25th, 1pm-2pm EST.

Concept note/background info:

Families around the world strive to provide children with a safe and nurturing home environment to empower their children to thrive. However, many families experience unexpected difficulties and trauma that can negatively influence this home environment. Parents, families, and communities can work to prevent, protect, and heal from these adverse events.

Speakers will present insights from their practical experiences working with parents and families to promote a healthy environment for children to thrive.

Prevent and Protect – Silvia Mazzarelli, Coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean of the Global Network of Religions for Children (GNRC) and Arigatou International will look specifically at how parents can keep children safe online and prevent any access to harmful material and persons.

Heal – In the unfortunate event of early childhood trauma, Dr. Amanda Costello from the University of Delaware will discuss the Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC) home-visiting parenting program that was developed by Dr. Mary Dozier. This evidence-based program helps caregivers to develop strong relationships with their children through positive feedback on parenting strategies. The program is currently offered in 19 US states and 8 countries.

Following this, there will be an opportunity for questions.

Please RSVP by Feb. 24th at 6pm EST to attend at https://forms.gle/bDVdyoPtM2hoPB5z7.

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on the Family-NY, please visit ngofamilyny.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Children’s Rights-NY, please visit childrightsny.org. 

International Day of Education: Recover & Revitalize Education for the COVID-19 generation

International Day of Education: Recover and revitalize education for the COVID-19 generation 

Monday 25 January 2021, 8am – 11am EST

Website: en.unesco.org/commemorations/educationday

RSVP link: on.unesco.org/IDEzoom

Watch online at webtv.un.org/ and use hashtags #PowerEducation #EducationDay

This third International Education Day occurs in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that led to a global learning disruption of unprecedented scale and severity. The closure of schools, universities and other learning institutions, as well as the interruption of many literacy and lifelong learning programmes, has affected the lives of 1.6 billion students in over 190 countries. As a new year begins, now is the time to step up collaboration and international solidarity to place education and lifelong learning at the centre of the recovery and the transformation towards more inclusive, safe and sustainable societies.

This event will highlight the urgency to mobilize funding for education; give voice to ‘community heroes’ who acted to leave no learner behind during school closures and present innovations that pave the way towards more resilient and inclusive education systems. The celebration of International Education Day by UNESCO will be organized in partnership with several partners, including the Global Partnership for Education and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies (CRI), and feature the participation of partners from the Global Education Coalition.

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Education, Learning, and Literacy, please visit facebook.com/NGOCELLatUN. For more information on the NGO Committee for Rare Diseases, please visit ngocommitteerarediseases.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Children’s Rights, please visit childrightsny.org.

NGO Committee on Children’s Rights meeting “Your Choices, Your Planet”

The NGO Committee on Children’s Rights, committed to the well being of the World’s Children and the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), will hold its first meeting of the New Year!

January 21, 2021, 3:30-5:00pm on Zoom

We will focus on a short committee agenda followed by our guest speaker in commemoration of the UN International Education Day on Jan. 25. We invite school children and youth to attend this very educational presentation to learn some practical things each one of us can do to halt the destruction of our planet.

Guest speaker: Ms. Dale Walkonen

We have been hypnotized into thinking of ourselves as consumers in a limitless system of goods. If we realize that each thing, we buy is a vote for or against sustainability we can make better choices. From fashion to food, from travel to technology, what do we really need to have a good life? We will look at some practical answers to the question – What each of us can do to halt the destruction of our planet?

Speaker biography: Dale Walkonen is an Associate Producer at FacingFuture. TV, a Youtube channel dedicated to Climate Change. She was formerly a Professor of Communications at Concordia College, as well as a Legislative Consultant for the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

www.childrightsny.org

Register here!

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Children’s Rights, please visit childrightsny.org. For more information on the Intergenerational Solidarity, please email the vice chair at susanneseperson@gmail.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Social Development, please visit ngosocdev.org.

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