As an international children's rights NGO, our role is to piece together the myriad ways in which children's access to information is being limited across the world and explain the impact on all children’s rights. Download our policy paper here.
We want to hear from you if you are aware of:
- Proposals to restrict children's access to information
- Relevant positive developments in laws and policies
- Court cases on this issue
Please e-mail us at [email protected]. CRIN works in Arabic, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
We also want to provide a platform for advocates, children, lawyers, governments, international institutions, media organisations and other campaigners to connect and learn about how others are working to guarantee children’s access to information.
We are currently developing pages on specific areas of access to information, including sex education, information on LGBT issues, internet filters, school textbooks. These pages will include actions you can take and link to campaigns other organisations are running on these issues.
Ideas for campaigning on children's access to information more broadly include:
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Monitor: What restrictions exist on children’s access to information in your country? Eg. is sexuality education comprehensive and mandatory in line with UNESCO guidelines? Are internet filters in place for child protection reasons? If so, do they “overblock”? What is the process for deciding restrictions, and who makes these decisions?
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Report: Inform the UN of progress and regression in your country on children’s access to information. Read about how to do this in our UN guide.
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Connect: Let us know if your organisation runs a campaign on any aspect of information. You can join our global directory of children’s rights advocates, and then email us to be included in this campaign we are putting together.
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Work with the media: Journalists have an important role to play in changing attitudes towards children which is fundamental to advancing their right to information and supporting them to form their own views and choices. All too often, children are either demonised or portrayed as helpless human beings. Read more in our guide to challenging age discrimination in the media.
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Work with schools: School is an important source of information for children. Many organisations are doing great work in this area, see for instance the Global Alliance for LGBT's Education work on how far LGBT's right to education is respected in your country.
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Use the law: We are putting together a snapshot of legal cases on children’s access to information. Let us know if you are aware of more. If you are a lawyer who has worked on similar cases, or would like to, please contact us so that we can include your name and contact details in our network of legal professionals.
- Get on twitter: In the United States, for example, a 17-year-old boy in Tennessee organised a Twitter campaign with the hashtag #itsoktosaygay to protest against a bill that would have banned teachers from discussing homosexuality in schools.