CRC Reporting and Child Participation
FU Berlin Lecture Series
6 November 2013
Child Rights Connect
«A coordinated platform for NGO action and plays a central role in
key child rights developments at the international level.»
 Secretariat
 6 permanent members of staff
 Advocacy and CRC Reporting
 80 Member Organisations
 Engagement with broad range of stakeholders
Strategic Planning
Goal-orientated planning for NGOs and coalitions
Planning for outcomes:
 What do you want to change?
 What will your advocacy strategy be to bring about that
change?
 Who will your key partners be?
 Engaging with the CRC Committee through the reporting
mechanism is one way to reinforce your national-level
advocacy work
 Concluding Observations and Recommendations
CRC and Child Rights in Practice
Duty Bearers and Rights Holders
NGOs & OTHER
SECTORS
GOVERNMENT
CHILDREN
PARENTS /
GUARDIANS
Meaningful Participation
Charity and service delivery work  Advocacy
A shift from perceiving the child as someone vulnerable and in need of
protection only, to perceiving the child as a rights holder.
Children can, in theory, engage with the CRC Committee in the same
way as other non-State actors
The opportunities for children to be involved in advocacy show there is
still work to be done.
Reporting by non-State Actors
Child rights &
realities
Gaps on child
rights
Priority
problems &
violations
Proposed
solutions
How Children can Participate

CRC reporting: child participation can take various forms
 A children’s submission does not have to be a formal written report.
 Children or child-led organisations, accompanied by adults
 An NGO writes an alternative report using information gathered during a
survey or study conducted with children.

Children interacting with the Committee
 Children can participate in the pre-session and session meetings
 Additional meetings between the children and Committee members only,
can be arranged, usually on the same day as the pre-session.

Role of Child Rights Connect.
Child Participation – CRC Committee
A child is any person under the age of 18
 Meaningful participation
 Children of all ages and backgrounds, including the most
vulnerable
 Child-centric and built around the needs and interests of children
 Environment of learning and expression
 Understanding of the entire CRC reporting process
 Managing expectations
 Part of an on-going process, not a one-off event or selection
 Planning for sustainability
Obstacles Identified by Children










Finding the time
Age
Understanding documents
The words adults use
UN languages
Following the translation in the meetings
Understanding the reporting process
Disability
The way people talked to children
Being able to go to Geneva
Challenges We See
 Is it always appropriate?
 Communicating information to children
 Impact: How will the children’s inputs be used?
 Managing expectations
 Manipulation and tokenism
 Representation vs testimonials
 What you can and cannot control from Geneva
 On-going or instituationalised participation without signing up for life
 Capacity
How we are Responding
 Working with the Committee
 Guidelines
 Internal working methods
 Discussion on good practice and standards
 Communications
 Website development
 Case studies
 Capacity building
 Engaging broader child rights community - capacity
 Networking
 Connecting people to share their experiences
 Participating in research and conferences: communicating results
Useful Resources
 Child Rights Connect: Secretariat Staff
 Reporting and Child Participation guides
 www.childrightsconnect.org
 Section of the website for U18s
 Alternative Report Database www.crin.org
 Look at past examples of reports
 CRC Committee’s website www.ohchr.org
Thank you for listening.
Questions?