A Civil Society for Child Rights in the MENA Region: Overview (in arabic)
Building on its experience and lessons learned in South-East Asia and more recently in North Africa and in the Great Lakes region of Africa, the International Bureau for Children’s Rights (IBCR) now seeks to build the capacity of local and regional partners in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) by sharing its know-how and expertise in monitoring and, reporting on the implementation of the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) and its Optional Protocols.
A Civil Society for Child Rights in the MENA Region is the newest project under the Country Profiles umbrella and is being implemented in partnership with Save the Children Sweden (SCS) and funded by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA). The project activities target 17 countries in the three sub-regions of MENA: In the Levant, it encompasses
While recognizing already established strengths of civil society organizations (CSOs) in combating poverty and providing social services, attention still needs to be given to the promotion and protection of human rights Based on the notion that CSOs can and should play a key role in the protection and promotion of human rights in general, and of child rights in particular., the project seeks to strengthen the capacity of existing regional and national civil society networks and organizations working on children’s rights in the region, and to support their role as advocates and active development partners for those rights,. CSOs also have an essential role of informing and educating the general public of the content and mechanisms of the CRC and to advocate for upholding the norms stipulated in the Convention by the primary duty bearer (the state).
To do so, the project will support and strengthen capacity in four main areas where a demonstrated need exists, and consists of:
(a) Analysis and reporting, - building the capacities of the regional and national actors in terms of their ability to generate credible research and analysis (in the form of Country Profiles) of the situation of the right of the child in each country of the region, including the status of implementation of the Concluding Observations of the CRC Committee, existing commendable practices, gaps, and progress made. Research will also be produced on a set of thematic issues to be identified by the regional and national partner organizations. Particular attention will also be given to support alternative reporting processes, and the creation of child friendly versions in both Arabic and English
(b) Networking, - foster joint initiatives amongst partners and stakeholders of more than two countries, and increase the exchange of good practices and expertise on the regional level;
(c) Advocacy – further the integration of child rights related concerns and recommendations by CSOs and children to support the effective development and implementation of regional and national policies, strategies and legislation that are in line with the CRC;
(d) CRC and child rights programming and mainstreaming – in order to ensure that the rights of the child are a priority in development efforts by various governmental and non-governmental stakeholders.
Although the MENA project will span over a period of 3.5 years, the key objective of this project is to guarantee the sustainability of those activities through the creation of a regional child rights platform (and website) that will act as a resource centre and focal point for a wide spectrum of regional and cross-country activities, expertise, and know-how in the above mentioned areas, and which are focused on the promotion of child rights in the MENA region.
To ensure that the view of children are integrated and reflected, child participation will feature as a key component of the project, including through child led data collection processes, and the creation of a Child Rights Advocates Network. The network will serve as a venue for feeding their views and concerns into decisions, projects, policies and legislative change at the national and regional levels. Building on a successful pilot project implemented by SCS in 2007 the project will also integrate Animate-It – a method that uses animation to create spaces for children to express their opinions, raise awareness and advocate for their rights combining writing, artwork, animation and sound.
The MENA program at the International Bureau for Children's Rights publishes a monthly newsletter that seeks to highlight developments in children's rights as they relate to the MENA region, and to act as a useful communication and information sharing tool. Our newsletter covers global developments on children's rights, MENA regional child related activities including events, conferences, news, vacancies, announcements, reportages, campaigns, and sub-regional and specific country updates on topics related to children's rights.