About the webinar:
This is a joint webinar with the Destination Unknown Campaign and Terre des Hommes on child rights within the UN Global Compacts.
At last September’s high-level Summit for Refugees and Migrants, the UN General Assembly adopted the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, which sets an ambitious agenda around protecting and sharing responsibility for refugees and migrants on a global scale. Over the next 18 months, the international community will be called upon to translate these commitments into practice by developing the Global Compact on Refugees and the Compact on Global and on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.
For this reason, a number of agencies have come together to lead the Initiative for Child Rights in the Global Compacts. This initiative brings together UN agencies, civil society, human rights institutions, donors and the private sector and is co-convened by Save the Children and Terre des Hommes. The initiative is to a create constituency of actors that can support the translation of the commitments in the New York Declaration into action that genuinely protects children.
Despite some cause for optimism, the New York Declaration marked a step backwards in child refugee and migrant protection, as it stated that detention for children can be used as a measure of last resort – allowing governments to continue to detain them.
This is a very unsatisfying outcome and Destination Unknown campaign and Terre des Hommes are advocating with their partners the end of child detention and the protection of the rights of children on the move to ensure that they are considered as children, first and foremost.
The upcoming webinar will provide closer look on the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants and the negative impact it can have on children on the move. The webinar will also provide more information on the Destination Unknown Campaign and the Initiative for Child Rights in the Global Compacts.
More information:
Recommended Principles for Children on the Move and Other Children affected by Migration
Initiative for Child Rights in the Global Compacts
About the speakers:
Vincent Tournecuillert is a manager of European migration programme at Terre des hommes Foundation. Over the years at Terre des Hommes, Mr. Tournecuiller worked as Global Campaign Coordinator for the International Secretariat of the International Federation of Terre Des Hommes and Regional Child Protection Advisor for the Middle East and North Africa working in four areas (Project cycle management, capacity building, research & development and communication & advocacy). In 2006, Mr. Tournecuiller created the Regional Office of Tdh for Central and South-Eastern Europe and worked for the past twelve years in transnational child protection issues within Europe and with neighboring countries. He also worked as a journalist and international free-lance reporter in countries in crisis (Balkans, Central Africa).
Amy Hong is working closely with the Secretary General to ensure the fulfillment of Terre des Hommes’ commitments to the Initiative for Child Rights in the Global Compacts. Amy is contributing to the working document “Child Rights in the Global Compacts,” to the organization of the Global Conference on Children on the Move, and to a global advocacy strategy on the importance of a common, harmonized approach to children on the move and other children affected by migration.
The recording of the webinar is available here.