The redesigned web site of the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago gives access to a great number of research resources, organized by theme or publication type. The reports, policy briefs, lectures and project data base are easily accessible, and is a great resource for anyone interested in public policy and programs for the well-being of children and youth.
The Innocenti Social Monitor 2009 examines the evolving and diverging challenges for the well-being of children after two decades of transition. Following a long period of economic growth and gradual improvements in living standards, the global economic crisis is now threatening to reverse some of the recent positive achievements and plunge households and children into another phase of uncertainty.
Law, Social Justice and Global Development is an innovative new electronic law journal covering a range of topics relating to legal issues surrounding the impact of globalisation on social development. This coming issue is edited by Prof. Asha Bajpaj of the TATA Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India, and will focus on the impact of globalization on child rights.
Child Rigths in Practice: Measuring our Impact is organized by IICRD at the University of Victoria, Canada, 25 - 30 October 2009. The conference aims to examine the impact that the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child has had on the day-to-day lives of children in Canada and around the world.
Childwatch members contribute to a new comprehensive handbook of children's studies, edited by Jens Qvortrup, William Corsaro and Michael-Sebastian Honig. The Palgrave Handbook of Children's Studies is a collection of essays that maps the field whilst setting a research agenda for future study.
A Handbook of Children and Young People's Participation, edited by Barry Percy-Smith and Nigel Thomas, includes discussions on challenges facing issues of participation, contextual aspects, as well as theoretical and methodological reflections about projects and practice. The book includes chapters by prominent members of the Childwatch International Research Network.
On 9 an 10 March 2009, the international Girl Child Conference on violence against girls was held in the Kurhaus in The Hague.
The declaration from the World Congress III against Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in November last year was recently finalized and published by the Brazilian government. The declaration supports the strengthening of research to improve preventive measures, interventions and monitoring to ensure quality of programs.
Dr. Ferran Casas represented Childwatch International at UNICEF / OECD / European Commission consultation on child well-being, 25 - 27 May.
The Childwatch International thematic group on Children and the Law are distributing a questionnaire to all Key Institutions to map children's participation in family law processes related to post-separation care arrangements internationally. This is the second phase of a larger international comparative study on children and the law. We encourage all Key Institutions to contribute to the study!
The Childwatch International Board has decided to allocate some financial resources for regional network activities in 2009. The regional networks have planned activities that support participation or representation at the Children's Rights at the Cross-Roads conference at the end of the year.
The International Society for Child Indicators is organizing its 2nd International Conference: Counting Children In!, in collaboration with the University of Western Sydney, 4 - 5 November 2009. A symposium on child inclusive research takes place one day before the conference. Submit your abstract before 19 June to take part in these important events!
Marta Santos Pais, Director of the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre in Florence, has been appointed Special Representative on Violence Against Children by the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Marta Arango, Childwatch Board member and Director of CINDE, Colombia, has been awarded Social Entrepreneur of the Year in Latin America by the Schwab Foundation. She receives the award for her outstanding life long work to revolutionize early childhood care and education in Colombia and internationally.
Stewart Asquith, highly respected partner, colleague and friend, passed away 13 April. We are very sorry to have lost an important resource to the international academic child rights community and to the Childwatch International Research network.
The Young Lives Project is a unique longitudinal research project about child poverty, reaching 12.000 children in Peru, India, Vietnam and Ethiopia. A major conference presenting and discussing the project and issues related to child poverty was held in Oxford at the end of March. Childwatch International sent two representatives to the event, to explore how the network could join forces with the Young Lives Project.
The International Society for Child Indicators is organizing its 2nd International Conference: Counting Children In!, in collaboration with the University of Western Sydney, 4 - 5 November 2009. A symposium on child inclusive research takes place one day before the conference. Submit your abstract before the end of April to take part in these important events!
The members of the Board of Childwatch International met for two days in Oslo this week, to decide on this year's plans and to lay out the final strategy for the coming child rights and research conference in Addis Ababa in November - December.
The Childwatch International collaborative research project on children's perspectives on citizenship will soon be launching their book "Children as Citizens? International Voices". With an international line-up of contributors, Children as Citizens? is a comprehensive, authoritative, and timely contribution to the ongoing debate about the status and rights of children.
The Institute for Child Rights and Development (IICRD), Canada, has received a three year grant from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to develop their project on systems change to improve the realization of children's rights. The project will be carried through in close collaboration with The International Centre for Education and Human Development (CINDE) Colombia.
Dr. Tine K. Jensen will represent Childwatch International at The International Conference on Violence against the Girl Child, invited by the Dutch Government. The UN Study on Violence against Children will serve as reference to the discussions. The aim is for the conference to be a practical follow-up to the study by demonstrating how its recommendations can be effectively implemented.
The joint Childwatch International and UNICEF Innocenti Child Friendly Cities Research Initiative has received a generous grant from the Bernard van Leer Foundation to pilot the project's research methodology and assesment toolkit. Piloting will take place in the Philippines and in Brazil during the first half of 2009.
The Research Network aims to bring together scholars engaged in theoretical and empirical work on Children and Childhood across Europe. The Network has organised successful Sociology of Childhood Streams at the last five ESA Conferences (1999-2007). The general theme of the 2009 conference is European Society or European Societies and the various sessions will address commonalities and differences between children growing up in European Societies.