Bristol hosts seminar to help improve children's rights

Participants at the two-day seminar including, in the front row. keynote speaker Dennis Arends (second from left) and Dr Heba Raouf (second from right), the project co-ordinator from Cairo University

24 April 2013

The University of Bristol has hosted a two-day seminar to discuss the challenges of implementing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child across the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) and Europe.

Organised by Professor Dave Gordon and Dr Debbie Watson, from Bristol’s School for Policy Studies, the two-day seminar on 4-5 April 2013, included panel discussions and debates on children’s rights issues, such as: child labour, access to education, help for asylum seeking and refugee children, trafficking and prostitution, and the situation of street children.

Delegates included policy makers, academics, students and children’s professionals from across Europe and the MENA regions, with keynote speeches from: Professor Aoife Nolan, Professor of Human Rights Law at the University of Nottingham; Naomi Eisenstadt, senior research fellow at the University of Oxford and advisor to the Department of Education on children’s services; Nadine Finch a human rights barrister and a member of both the Children’s Rights Alliance for England and Statewatch; UNICEF’s Dennis Arends from the Netherlands; and Dr Anne Crowley, part of Cardiff University’s Childhood Research Group.

The workshop was the culmination of a three-year, EU Tempus-funded project to develop a Diploma in Public Policy and Child Rights (DPPCR). The DPPCR, which will be taught in four universities in Egypt and Jordan, is a postgraduate diploma aimed at children’s advocates and professionals. Its aim is to promote a culture in Egypt and Jordan where children’s rights are respected, protected and fulfilled through improved policies and practices.

The project has brought together expertise from the School for Policy Studies, other universities in Egypt, Jordan, Germany and the Netherlands, and from UNICEF and the organisation Research in Practice.

The School for Policy Studies is currently hosting seven diploma students from Egypt, who are attending a range of lectures and student activities as part of learning enrichment and ongoing collaborations in the project.