The Rights of Child Human Rights Defenders (CHRDs)

Introduction to the CHRD Guide

Concept and Development

In 2018, Child Rights Connect successfully proposed to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child that it held its Day of General Discussion (DGD) on the topic of Protecting and Empowering Children as Human Rights Defenders. That year coincided with the 20^th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. 2018 was the turning point in a global oversight in which people under 18 years of age who defended and promoted human rights were not considered human rights defenders and, therefore, did not receive the empowerment and protection that this designation demands.

Since then, Child Rights Connect has led a collaborative effort to follow-up to the recommendations that came out of the 2018 DGD with different actors, such as United Nations agencies and human rights mechanisms, non-governmental organizations, academics, children, and regional human rights mechanisms. This Guide is a key output of this collective process, offering expertise, tips and guidelines to advance the protection and promotion of child human rights defenders.

The Guide seeks to recognise the growing numbers of child human rights defenders mobilising across the world with dedication to human rights and the problems of our time (from mobilisation against authoritarian governments curtailing rights and freedoms to drawing attention to the climate emergency) and respond to their situation and the recommendations they have shared with us.