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Summary: Two conferences on the work of independent institutions for children took place last week in Athens.
Two conferences looking at the work of independent institutions for children took place last week in Athens, Greece. The first event was the annual meeting of the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children (ENOC) which was hosted by the Greek Ombudsman and organised by the office of the Greek Ombusman for Children. ENOC is a not-for-profit association of independent children’s rights institutions. Its mandate is to facilitate the promotion and protection of children's rights, as formulated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Members of the network are independent authorities working for the protection and promotion of children’s rights in Council of Europe member states. One of the aims of the conference was to adopt a new Statute for the Network and to adopt an ENOC statement on Unaccompanied Children. Other sessions looked at some best practices from members around the region, such as how to involve children in the work of ombudspersons, how to report to parliament on children's rights issues, how to intervene in child care institutions and how to organise advocacy and campaigns. The main theme of the conference was tackling discrimination in education with working groups on how to change anti-discrimination legislation, on human rights education in schools, on integrating minorities and children with special needs and tackling bullying. Brent Parfitt, Member of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, was invited to talk about how ombudsmen for children can examine States parties reports on the implementation of the CRC. The Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg, talked about the role of the Council of Europe in defending children's rights and how independent institutions for children can use existing mechanisms in their work for children. In an effort to increase collaboration and information sharing between independent institutions for children and child rights NGOs, CRIN and ENOC jointly launched a new website at the conference on the work of ombudspersons for children. The website features information about the Network, links to its members, its Statute, country information linked to the CRIN website, and much more. Go to: www.ombudsnet.org. The conference, which was held in the framework of the Russian Chairmanship of the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers, analysed how ombudsmen around Europe can protect children’s rights, discussed the treatment of children's rights in daily ombudswork, featured a session on how to more inclusively involve children in the work of these institutions, and discussed how ombudspersons can benefit from the work done by inter-governmental organisations and children's rights NGOs. This session brought together over one hundred participants from the region, including national and regional ombudsmen, the European Ombudsman, Council of Europe and UN experts, NGO representatives and children and young people. Thomas Hammarberg will be issuing his conclusions on the conference and these will be available on the CRIN website when they are issued. ___________________________________ More information:
A second conference related to independent institutions's work for children took place from 29 to 30 September and was co-organised by the Commissioner for Human Rights, the Russian Federal Ombudsman for Human Rights, and the Greek Ombudsman.