Reforming UN Frameworks for Child Protection: A Call for Systemic Integration
Despite the critical importance of child protection, efforts to strengthen child protection systems are significantly underrepresented in global development frameworks...
Girls & Child Protection Systems: Building a Gender-Transformative Future
Integrating gender-transformative approaches into child protection systems, guided by new research from UNICEF, would address the unique challenges faced by girls…
Urgent Need to Scale Accountability for Children in Conflict Zones
This article examines the evolution and implementation of accountability within the UN's Global Agenda for Children in Armed Conflict (CAAC), emphasizing the need for scalable, actionable mechanisms to ensure justice and support for all affected children and families.
East Asia: Grave violations against children
In a recent article published on Devpolicy Blog, I explore the critical issue of grave violations against children in East Asia. Here is the link to the article. A slightly longer version of the article is published below.
Together for Girls Strategy 2024-2030: Breaking the cycles of violence
The Together for Girls Strategy 2024-2030 is a robust and comprehensive approach to ending violence against children, including adolescent girls …
Unprecedented Surge in Violence Against Children Amid Global Conflicts
In 2023, violence against children in armed conflict reached extreme levels, with a shocking 21 per cent increase in grave violations. Children bore the brunt of multiplying and escalating crises that were marked by a complete disregard for child rights, notably the inherent right to life…
In Australia, the latest twist in the Brittany Higgins case is a painful reminder of how justice and protection systems (here and abroad) continue to fail women and children.
The lessons we can share with developing countries is not about what works but rather what has not worked in our efforts to ensure that women and children can claim and enjoy their rights to justice and protection as enshrined in global standards and instruments.
With a growing number of developing countries releasing children from detention as a preventive measure for COVID-19, how can we support all countries to do the same?
Releasing girls and boys from detention is a public health priority and a key prevention measure for COVID-19 for the simple reason that the pandemic spreads much more rapidly in confined spaces. New variants of the virus appear to be more infectious and are infecting younger adults and children at higher levels than previous mutations. And while vaccines may provide a bridge to a post COVID-19 world, for some people in some countries, in the meantime, prevention remains the priority. This means keeping children out of high-risk environments such as detention facilities.
See you in 2021!
Wishing everyone a safe and more optimistic close to 2020 and a more productive and resilient start to the new year, where we can get fully back to work creating a World where all children - girls and boys everywhere - are protected. Protected from violence, abuse and exploitation. Protected from the virus. Protected from the economic fallout from the virus. Protected from government budget cuts to come.
A growing call to classify gender-based violence services and child protection services as essential services and to invest in them: Child Protection in the age of COVID-19
Given the mounting evidence that COVID-19 is leading to increased violence against women and children it is well past time for the big international aid agencies to immediately classify gender-based violence (GBV) services and child protection services as essential services. While this classification from non-essential to essential would not be a full fix to a historical problem based on structural inequalities between women and men and adults and children, it would usher in a number of dynamic changes: Funding, scale and quality would be achieved which in turn would lead to a reduction in violence, which after all is central to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals, 2030.
Economic stimulus packages, NGOs and protecting children from harm: Child Protection in the age of COVID-19
International NGOs are at the forefront of efforts to protect children from harm in developing countries, yet, COVID-19 is posing a real threat to their very existence. With the wealthiest countries investing more than $8 trillion in economic stimulus packages, is it too much to ask that these packages do more to bolster the work of these NGOs?
Five strategies for protecting children in detention: Child Protection in the age of COVID-19
The right to personal liberty is one of the most enduring and important of all human rights, yet every year more than 400,000 children Worldwide are held in detention in juvenile detention facilities and prisons. Releasing girls and boys from detention is a public health priority for COVID-19, for the simple reason that the pandemic will most likely spread much more rapidly in confined spaces, whether they be nursing homes for the elderly; orphanages for the young; prisons for adult male and female offenders; or detention facilities for child offenders…
Child Protection in the Age of COVID-19: What is the Data Telling Us?
COVID-19 … we know that adults of parenting age are dying, we know that these deaths create orphans and we know that children who become orphaned are at heightened risk of a ranger of protection violations. This of course is one of the many lessons we learned, and are continuing to learn, from the AIDS crisis which, as of 2018, had resulted in just under 15 million orphans…