Major accomplishments of the IBCR

2009-2010 Highlights…

In winter 2009, the Bureau launched a new newsletter on children’s rights within the Middle East and North Africa region. This new newsletter follows on from our successful ‘Children in Armed Conflict’ newsletter that the IBCR has produced for the last three years.. From Morocco to Iraq through Syria and Yemen, the newsletter is an inventory of child rights violations within the region and of the actions taken to remedy these violations. The newsletters are distributed to a list of key actors working in the region. They are also made freely available on our website.

In April 2009, the General Director of the International Bureau for Children's Rights and the Programme Manager on child trafficking published an article "trafficking of children in a North American perspective: the case of Canada", in the Cahiers de Sécurité, nº9 in July-September 2009. (Ministry of the Interior, France).

6-8 May 2009, the General Director was invited on the steering committee of the Journées d’échanges pluridisciplinaires Charles-Coderre (Conference on the rights of the child in a multidisciplinary exchange), jointly organised by the Fondation Charles-Coderre and the Faculty of law of the University of Sherbrooke

May 14 and June 1, 2009, again this year, the Programme Director gave two courses on children in armed conflict during the United Nations seminar on peace keeping missions organised by the United Nations Institute for training and research (UNITAR) and the University of Québec in Montreal (UQAM), (Montreal, Canada).

22 May 2009, and during the year, the Programme Manager on child trafficking actively participated in the Senate Committee Against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children and Youth, chaired by Senator Roméo Dallaire

25-30May 2009, the Programme Director and the Programme Manager travel to Amman (Jordan) to conduct a three day workshop on the research methodology of the Country Profiles.

30 May 2009, for the mandatory training of the Bar Association of Quebec (Congress 2009) the IBCR provided training to lawyers on the Convention entitled: the Convention on the rights of the child: Do we have reason to celebrate?

In June 2009, the General Director gave training on strategies to advocate for the rights of children, to more than one hundred international human rights defenders, at the annual Human rights training of EQUITAS.

6 June 2009, a workshop was organised with International Children's Help Agency (AIPE) on child trafficking.

Summer 2009, an Advisory Committee was created by the International Bureau for Children’s Rights of various civil society organisations in order to develop training on trafficking of young girls.

11 August 2009, the Programme Director participated in a discussion organised by the Canadian International Development Agency to identify what topics associated with the protection of children and equality between men and women should be prioritized within CIDA policies.

8 and 15 September 2009, a ‘training of trainers’ was offered to frontline social workers interacting with youth to enable them to learn more about the trafficking of children as well as facilitate the identification of young victims or youth at risk of being victims of trafficking.

28 and 29 September 2009, the Programme Director was invited to a Conference on the effectiveness of international aid organised by the Canadian Council for International Cooperation in Ottawa (Canada).

28September 2009, the General Director and the Programme Manager on child trafficking are summoned to the Senate Committee on human rights to present their views on the sexual exploitation of children in Canada.

In October 2009, the International Bureau of Children's Rights published a final report on trafficking of children entitled "Trafficking of children, a reality here... and elsewhere".

5-7 October 2009, the Programme Director of was invited by the Canadian Embassy in Caracas (Venezuela) to conduct a series of presentations on the role of civil society in dialogue with governments on the rights of the child.

9 October 2009, the book co-edited by IBCR and the editor la courte échelle on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Quebec (Canada) is officially sold in all bookstores.

29 October 2009, the General Director presents a workshop on the Convention on the Rights of the Child “bases and application in Quebec and in Canada” at the Annual Conference of the organisation Plaidoyer Victime (a provincial network advocating for the rights of victims).

6 November 2009, the IBCR organised an evening to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child as well as the fifteenth anniversary of the IBCR. On the occasion the book entitled "Knowing the rights of the child: understanding the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Quebec", in collaboration with the editor la courte échelle was launched.

10 -11 November 2009 in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), the Programme Director facilitated a workshop on determining the best interests of the child and the related international tools, to an assembly of police officers from about 50 affiliated with West African police academies. The participation of the IBCR was made possible through the support of the International Organisation of the Francophonie (OIF), Francopol and the Sûreté du Québec who were acting as hosts of the regional seminar aiming to train police forces in West Africa.

12 November 2009, training was given by the Quebec Native Women Organisation to the IBCR team about the realities of first nations in Canada.

20 November 2009, the IBCR was invited to make several presentations to the Conference of Islamic States in Cairo (Egypt). At the same time the IBCR held the meeting of the board of directors and celebrated the appointment of one of its most illustrious members Mrs Moushira Khattab, Minister for Family and Population of the Arab Republic of Egypt.

18-23 of November 2009, the book "Knowing the rights of the child: understanding the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Quebec" was presented at the 32^nd Montreal Book Fair.

20 November 2009, the day of the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child , the Programme Director gave a talk at the opening of the International Conference on the Rights of Children organised by the University of Ottawa. The presentation emphasised the involvement of civil societies in monitoring and evaluating the implementation Convention on the Rights of the Child.

2 December 2009, the IBCR held its first forum on child sex tourism, for representatives of the Quebec tourism industry and to various Canadian governmental and non-governmental organisations.

2^-5 December 2009, the General Director traveled to Casablanca (Morocco) to attend a one-week workshop on child lead data collection implemented trough the MANARA project.

2-4 December 2009, the Programme Director went to Gaborone (Botswana) to conduct a workshop on existing mechanisms to remove children from armed groups and forces during a regional Executive Workshop on children and armed conflict in southern Africa. The Director was invited to the workshop by the Child Soldier Initiative of the Senator Roméo Dallaire

2 -9 December, 2009, the Programme Manager on child trafficking was invited to Istanbul (Turkey) to receive the prize "Success Story" from the World Family Organisation for the training on child trafficking. He made a presentation at the International Organisation for Migration on the same project.

11 December 2009, the Programme Director was invited to a workshop (research project) organised by the University of Massachusetts in Boston (USA) on the factors that make some issues interesting and as a consequence influence governments and agencies priorities while others remaining indifferent to other issues.

11 December 2009, the International Bureau for Children's Rights organised an evening to raise awareness on the issue of trafficking of girls, which began with an interactive piece of theatre, followed by an animation in the spirit of the forum-theatre, inviting participants (mostly youth) to fill the shoes of the characters and to reflect on what they would have done in their place. Then, specialists on prevention and in the fight against trafficking such as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) gave testimonies as to their experience.

14- 21December 2009, the Programme Director and the MENA programme manager travelled to Sana'a (Yemen) to support SOUL (a non-governmental organisation) in the drafting of the Country profile of Yemen.

17-24December, 2009, the Programme Manager on child trafficking went to Paris to meet with various organisations, including the NGO Foot-Solidaire as well as the Department of Health and Sports for future collaborations.

8January 2010, the Programme Director moderated a workshop with more than 20 participants of the Swedish Civil Contingency Agency in Karlstad (Sweden). The presentation was intended to propose possibilities for such an agency specialised in humanitarian assistance to integrate a mandate and practices on the rights of the child.

15- 29 January 2010, the Programme Manager for the Middle East and North Africa with the support of an international consultant visited the partner offices in Lebanon (Alef and Naba ' ) and Morocco (Bayti) to assist them in completing their Country profile drafts while strengthening their capacity for research on the rights of the child.

22 January 2010, the Director General gave a presentation on the Convention on the Rights of the Child before an assembly reuniting all of the Quebec youth protection directors.

4 February 2010, the Supreme Court of Canada recognised rights violations of Omar Khadr; a Canadian youth detained at Guantanamo since nearly seven years for a crime he’s accused of having committed a child. Reacting to this decision,the Director General and the Programme Director published an article in Le Devoir entitled ' Omar Khadr, our child-soldier ... ". ». The article has been taken up and published in the Journal des jeunes (Youth Journal) Belgium.

15-19 February 2010, the International Bureau for Children's Rights was privileged to welcome Dr. Najat M' Jid, Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography to the United Nations.

22 February 2010, the IBCR joined the award ceremony of the contest "Youth of the World" by the organisation Educlaloi culminating over a year of collaboration (a non-profit organisation whose mission it is to inform Quebecers of their rights and obligations by providing quality legal information in everyday language). IBCR has contributed to the content of the project and participated in the selection of the winning texts written by young people (14 to 16 years old) on questions around the rights of the child. This contest was aiming to mark the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

22-25 February 2010, the Programme manager MENA represent the IBCR in Cairo (Egypt) in a regional workshop for the civil society hosted by the Arab Council for childhood and development.

March 2010, the Programme director wrote a chapter in the book "New currents of humanitarian assistance" on the evolution of the protection of children in armed conflict. This book, co-published by Mr Yvan Conoir and Gérard Verna, will be published in February 2011 by the University de Laval University Press. In addition, the Programme Director also wrote an article entitled "the twentieth anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child: strengthening the role of civil society in monitoring and evaluating children's rights" published in the annual report 2009-2010 International Centre for the Prevention of Crime.

In March 2010, the awareness-raising campaign created by the International Bureau for Children’s Rights to inform about child sex tourism is disseminated by several travel agencies and tour operators in their communications with tourists and travellers, on their website, in emails, etc.

2 March 2010, the Bureau co-organised a table round "Child slavery", with the School of international development and globalisation (University of Ottawa) and the special rapporteur Mrs Najat M’jid.

3-10 March 2010, the Programme Manager on child trafficking was invited by the Government of Vancouver (Office to Combat Trafficking In Persons (OCTIP) ) to participate in an Advisory Committee to comment on training tools developed to prevent trafficking of children in British Columbia.

24-30 March 2010, the IBCR received in Montreal partners of the MANARA project. Iraqi civil society, Jordanian Lebanese, Moroccan, Palestinian, and Yemen took part in a one week workshop conducted by the IBCR. On the one hand it was an opportunity to evaluate the first year of implementation of the project with partners that had contributed since the beginning, and on the other hand to train new partners on the methodology of Country profiles. This workshop also allowed for meetings with partners to determine a plan of action for the next years, including advocacy.

30-31 March 2010, the team of the child sex tourism programme gave training to booking agents at Canandes Tours. A company that organises and sells travels to Latin America.

At the end of March 2010, the IBCR has published a new edition of the guide on Children and armed conflict: a guide to international humanitarian and human rights law. The IBCR has undertaken this ambitious project to update the original guide, published in 2003, while enlarging its scope and its content. We are particularly proud of the collaboration with Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the UN for children and armed conflict Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy, who wrote the preface of the guide. Thanks to the support and trust of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada and the contribution of 20 experts and reviewers, the IBCR was able to produce this tool of reference, published in English and French. Arabic and Spanish versions are also in development.

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	English / Français Major accomplishments of the IBCR 2009-2010 Highlights… In winter 2009, the Bureau launched a new newsletter on children’s rights within the Middle East and North Africa region. This new newsletter follows on from our successful ‘Children in Armed Conflict’ newsletter that the IBCR has produced for the last three years.. From Morocco to Iraq through Syria and Yemen, the newsletter is an inventory of child rights violations within the region and of the actions taken to remedy these violations. The newsletters are distributed to a list of key actors working in the region. They are also made freely available on our website. In April 2009, the General Director of the International Bureau for Children's Rights and the Programme Manager on child trafficking published an article "trafficking of children in a North American perspective: the case of Canada", in the Cahiers de Sécurité, nº9 in July-September 2009. (Ministry of the Interior, France). 6-8 May 2009, the General Director was invited on the steering committee of the Journées d’échanges pluridisciplinaires Charles-Coderre (Conference on the rights of the child in a multidisciplinary exchange), jointly organised by the Fondation Charles-Coderre and the Faculty of law of the University of Sherbrooke May 14 and June 1, 2009, again this year, the Programme Director gave two courses on children in armed conflict during the United Nations seminar on peace keeping missions organised by the United Nations Institute for training and research (UNITAR) and the University of Québec in Montreal (UQAM), (Montreal, Canada). 22 May 2009, and during the year, the Programme Manager on child trafficking actively participated in the Senate Committee Against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children and Youth, chaired by Senator Roméo Dallaire 25-30May 2009, the Programme Director and the Programme Manager travel to Amman (Jordan) to conduct a three day workshop on the research methodology of the Country Profiles. 30 May 2009, for the mandatory training of the Bar Association of Quebec (Congress 2009) the IBCR provided training to lawyers on the Convention entitled: the Convention on the rights of the child: Do we have reason to celebrate? In June 2009, the General Director gave training on strategies to advocate for the rights of children, to more than one hundred international human rights defenders, at the annual Human rights training of EQUITAS. 6 June 2009, a workshop was organised with International Children's Help Agency (AIPE) on child trafficking. Summer 2009, an Advisory Committee was created by the International Bureau for Children’s Rights of various civil society organisations in order to develop training on trafficking of young girls. 11 August 2009, the Programme Director participated in a discussion organised by the Canadian International Development Agency to identify what topics associated with the protection of children and equality between men and women should be prioritized within CIDA policies. 8 and 15 September 2009, a ‘training of trainers’ was offered to frontline social workers interacting with youth to enable them to learn more about the trafficking of children as well as facilitate the identification of young victims or youth at risk of being victims of trafficking. 28 and 29 September 2009, the Programme Director was invited to a Conference on the effectiveness of international aid organised by the Canadian Council for International Cooperation in Ottawa (Canada). 28September 2009, the General Director and the Programme Manager on child trafficking are summoned to the Senate Committee on human rights to present their views on the sexual exploitation of children in Canada. In October 2009, the International Bureau of Children's Rights published a final report on trafficking of children entitled "Trafficking of children, a reality here... and elsewhere". 5-7 October 2009, the Programme Director of was invited by the Canadian Embassy in Caracas (Venezuela) to conduct a series of presentations on the role of civil society in dialogue with governments on the rights of the child. 9 October 2009, the book co-edited by IBCR and the editor la courte échelle on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Quebec (Canada) is officially sold in all bookstores. 29 October 2009, the General Director presents a workshop on the Convention on the Rights of the Child “bases and application in Quebec and in Canada” at the Annual Conference of the organisation Plaidoyer Victime (a provincial network advocating for the rights of victims). 6 November 2009, the IBCR organised an evening to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child as well as the fifteenth anniversary of the IBCR. On the occasion the book entitled "Knowing the rights of the child: understanding the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Quebec", in collaboration with the editor la courte échelle was launched. 10 -11 November 2009 in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), the Programme Director facilitated a workshop on determining the best interests of the child and the related international tools, to an assembly of police officers from about 50 affiliated with West African police academies. The participation of the IBCR was made possible through the support of the International Organisation of the Francophonie (OIF), Francopol and the Sûreté du Québec who were acting as hosts of the regional seminar aiming to train police forces in West Africa. 12 November 2009, training was given by the Quebec Native Women Organisation to the IBCR team about the realities of first nations in Canada. 20 November 2009, the IBCR was invited to make several presentations to the Conference of Islamic States in Cairo (Egypt). At the same time the IBCR held the meeting of the board of directors and celebrated the appointment of one of its most illustrious members Mrs Moushira Khattab, Minister for Family and Population of the Arab Republic of Egypt. 18-23 of November 2009, the book "Knowing the rights of the child: understanding the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Quebec" was presented at the 32^nd Montreal Book Fair. 20 November 2009, the day of the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child , the Programme Director gave a talk at the opening of the International Conference on the Rights of Children organised by the University of Ottawa. The presentation emphasised the involvement of civil societies in monitoring and evaluating the implementation Convention on the Rights of the Child. 2 December 2009, the IBCR held its first forum on child sex tourism, for representatives of the Quebec tourism industry and to various Canadian governmental and non-governmental organisations. 2^-5 December 2009, the General Director traveled to Casablanca (Morocco) to attend a one-week workshop on child lead data collection implemented trough the MANARA project. 2-4 December 2009, the Programme Director went to Gaborone (Botswana) to conduct a workshop on existing mechanisms to remove children from armed groups and forces during a regional Executive Workshop on children and armed conflict in southern Africa. The Director was invited to the workshop by the Child Soldier Initiative of the Senator Roméo Dallaire 2 -9 December, 2009, the Programme Manager on child trafficking was invited to Istanbul (Turkey) to receive the prize "Success Story" from the World Family Organisation for the training on child trafficking. He made a presentation at the International Organisation for Migration on the same project. 11 December 2009, the Programme Director was invited to a workshop (research project) organised by the University of Massachusetts in Boston (USA) on the factors that make some issues interesting and as a consequence influence governments and agencies priorities while others remaining indifferent to other issues. 11 December 2009, the International Bureau for Children's Rights organised an evening to raise awareness on the issue of trafficking of girls, which began with an interactive piece of theatre, followed by an animation in the spirit of the forum-theatre, inviting participants (mostly youth) to fill the shoes of the characters and to reflect on what they would have done in their place. Then, specialists on prevention and in the fight against trafficking such as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) gave testimonies as to their experience. 14- 21December 2009, the Programme Director and the MENA programme manager travelled to Sana'a (Yemen) to support SOUL (a non-governmental organisation) in the drafting of the Country profile of Yemen. 17-24December, 2009, the Programme Manager on child trafficking went to Paris to meet with various organisations, including the NGO Foot-Solidaire as well as the Department of Health and Sports for future collaborations. 8January 2010, the Programme Director moderated a workshop with more than 20 participants of the Swedish Civil Contingency Agency in Karlstad (Sweden). The presentation was intended to propose possibilities for such an agency specialised in humanitarian assistance to integrate a mandate and practices on the rights of the child. 15- 29 January 2010, the Programme Manager for the Middle East and North Africa with the support of an international consultant visited the partner offices in Lebanon (Alef and Naba ' ) and Morocco (Bayti) to assist them in completing their Country profile drafts while strengthening their capacity for research on the rights of the child. 22 January 2010, the Director General gave a presentation on the Convention on the Rights of the Child before an assembly reuniting all of the Quebec youth protection directors. 4 February 2010, the Supreme Court of Canada recognised rights violations of Omar Khadr; a Canadian youth detained at Guantanamo since nearly seven years for a crime he’s accused of having committed a child. Reacting to this decision,the Director General and the Programme Director published an article in Le Devoir entitled ' Omar Khadr, our child-soldier ... ". ». The article has been taken up and published in the Journal des jeunes (Youth Journal) Belgium. 15-19 February 2010, the International Bureau for Children's Rights was privileged to welcome Dr. Najat M' Jid, Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography to the United Nations. 22 February 2010, the IBCR joined the award ceremony of the contest "Youth of the World" by the organisation Educlaloi culminating over a year of collaboration (a non-profit organisation whose mission it is to inform Quebecers of their rights and obligations by providing quality legal information in everyday language). IBCR has contributed to the content of the project and participated in the selection of the winning texts written by young people (14 to 16 years old) on questions around the rights of the child. This contest was aiming to mark the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 22-25 February 2010, the Programme manager MENA represent the IBCR in Cairo (Egypt) in a regional workshop for the civil society hosted by the Arab Council for childhood and development. March 2010, the Programme director wrote a chapter in the book "New currents of humanitarian assistance" on the evolution of the protection of children in armed conflict. This book, co-published by Mr Yvan Conoir and Gérard Verna, will be published in February 2011 by the University de Laval University Press. In addition, the Programme Director also wrote an article entitled "the twentieth anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child: strengthening the role of civil society in monitoring and evaluating children's rights" published in the annual report 2009-2010 International Centre for the Prevention of Crime. In March 2010, the awareness-raising campaign created by the International Bureau for Children’s Rights to inform about child sex tourism is disseminated by several travel agencies and tour operators in their communications with tourists and travellers, on their website, in emails, etc. 2 March 2010, the Bureau co-organised a table round "Child slavery", with the School of international development and globalisation (University of Ottawa) and the special rapporteur Mrs Najat M’jid. 3-10 March 2010, the Programme Manager on child trafficking was invited by the Government of Vancouver (Office to Combat Trafficking In Persons (OCTIP) ) to participate in an Advisory Committee to comment on training tools developed to prevent trafficking of children in British Columbia. 24-30 March 2010, the IBCR received in Montreal partners of the MANARA project. Iraqi civil society, Jordanian Lebanese, Moroccan, Palestinian, and Yemen took part in a one week workshop conducted by the IBCR. On the one hand it was an opportunity to evaluate the first year of implementation of the project with partners that had contributed since the beginning, and on the other hand to train new partners on the methodology of Country profiles. This workshop also allowed for meetings with partners to determine a plan of action for the next years, including advocacy. 30-31 March 2010, the team of the child sex tourism programme gave training to booking agents at Canandes Tours. A company that organises and sells travels to Latin America. At the end of March 2010, the IBCR has published a new edition of the guide on Children and armed conflict: a guide to international humanitarian and human rights law. The IBCR has undertaken this ambitious project to update the original guide, published in 2003, while enlarging its scope and its content. We are particularly proud of the collaboration with Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the UN for children and armed conflict Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy, who wrote the preface of the guide. Thanks to the support and trust of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada and the contribution of 20 experts and reviewers, the IBCR was able to produce this tool of reference, published in English and French. Arabic and Spanish versions are also in development. This site and its contents are the copyright of the International Bureau for Children's Rights (IBCR). IBCR encourages the broadest possible dissemination of its material. IBCR material including publications can be reproduced for non-commercial purposes provided attribution is given to IBCR and IBCR is informed. Commercial use or reproduction of IBCR material, in whole or in part, by whatever means, is strickly prohibited.
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