Roberta Cecchetti is a children’s rights expert with a 25-year career and wide international experience in child protection, safeguarding and defending children’s rights. She has worked with non-governmental organisations and United Nations agencies, including 15 years with Save the Children.

Ms Cecchetti has contributed to the drafting and testing of international statistical classifications on alternative care and violence against children, and has provided technical expertise on safeguarding and child protection in investigations into sexual abuse in public schools.

Ms Cecchetti’s consultancy work extends to a range of organisations, where she has conducted evaluations of national child protection systems in several countries, developed regional advocacy strategies on alternative care for children, and provided technical leadership for governance reviews of multi-stakeholder alliances.

Ms Cecchetti’s career includes key roles at Save the Children International, where she led child protection policy and advocacy, and served as UN representative and head of office in Geneva. She also coordinated country programmes for Save the Children Italy and managed the child rights programme at the World Organisation Against Torture. Early in her career, she managed projects at the European Forum for Child Protection in Brussels, helping to manage pan-European projects. Throughout her career, Ms Cecchetti has demonstrated a strong commitment to promoting children’s rights and ensuring their protection in various international contexts. She was President of Child Rights Connect for three years and of the Global Detention Project for five years.

Based in Geneva, Ms Cecchetti has worked throughout her career in various countries and speaks Italian, English, French and Spanish.