Summary: Invitation to the international launch of the campaign to end the immigration detention of children - March 21, 2012, Palais de Nations, Geneva. Please find below and attached an invitation to the international launch of the campaign to end the immigration detention of children to be held next week in Geneva during the UN Human Rights Council's 19th Session. The IDC will be organising a press conference and expert side meeting in collaboration with OHCHR and WRC in the Palais de Nations on Wednesday March 21, 2012, Geneva, Switzerland - Rm. XXIV, 2-3.30pm. A number of experts will be speaking, together with the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants and the Swedish and Belgian governments. The IDC will be launching our policy document on children in immigration detention at the event, which we will circulate next week. NGOs are very welcome. If you do not have accreditation please contact Jessica Jones by Friday: Jessicaj@wrcommission.org Please forward the invitation to those who may be attending the Human Rights Council and to government contacts. If you are sending this invitation to governments, please removing this introductory text, add the heading: Invitation to expert meeting on alternatives to the immigration detention of children, and cc: info@idcoalition.org We will also be launching the campaign in almost 20 countries on the same day. We have circulated information and ways to get involved to groups that have signed onto the campaign. If you have not signed onto the campaign, please do so here: www.idcoalition.org/children Refugee, asylum seeker and migrant children simply do not belong in detention. However research shows that child detention is a growing problem and a major protection gap worldwide. The International Detention Coalition (IDC) will launch a global campaign to end the immigration detention of children at the UN Human Rights Council in March this year as well as in a number of countries. We need your support to build and put pressure on governments to start using child friendly procedures, or for those that already do, we need to ask them to share good practices with others. The campaign to end child detention will be open to anyone supporting our position, as laid out in a policy document on child detention based on research in five continents wherein almost 80 formerly detained children were interviewed. The central argument not to detain children, their families and unaccompanied or separated minors is based on three principles: Undocumented child migrants are, first and foremost, children. The best interests of the child must be a primary consideration in any action taken in relation to the child. The liberty of the child is a fundamental human right. This campaign then is about child rights but equally about human rights and refugee rights. This campaign focuses specifically on children detained for immigration purposes, including child refugees, asylum seekers and irregular migrants, however the IDC vision of alternatives to detention is far broader. You can read more about why and how immigration detention should only be used as a very last resort in the IDC handbook “There are alternatives” (www.idcoalition.org/cap). We are looking for organisations to support our campaign in a number of ways. The IDC will organise a side event at the UN Human Rights Council on the 21st of March 2012 to present the child focused research at a panel discussion on child detention. Also on that day, the official campaign film clip and website will be launched publicly and a number of countries will engage media with formerly detained children or by other means. Let us know if you can help. We also need help with collecting more written or recorded stories, data about child detention or good practices in various countries, campaign representatives at regional and international forums and more. For details on how your organisation can endorse this critical campaign, see the attachment.
Background information
Alternatives to the immigration detention of children
Organisation:
Web:
http://www.crin.org/docs/campaignletter.pdf
Articles:
Link :
http://www.crin.org/docs/Invitation%20to%20expert%20meeting%20on%20alternatives%20to%20immigration%20detention%20of%20children%20210312.doc
Countries
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