Indicators for Children’s Rights

– – Indicators for Children’s Rights

Project Proposal, 29 November 1993Proposal for a Project to Identify and Develop
Indicators for the Use in Monitoring the Implementation
of the Convention on the Rights of the Child

 

Content:

 

1. INTRODUCTION

In order to ensure an effective implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child — so that children really benefit from the protection it gives – tools to measure or assess the status of children’s rights in a country will be needed. Just as the mere ratification of an international convention does not guarantee its implementation, the adaptation of national laws and policies is not a sufficient proof that the rights enshrined in a convention are enjoyed by the people of that country.

Some practical indicators to monitor the actual implementation are needed, based on reliable statistical or other relevant information. Such indicators must be easy to collect and easy to understand in order to serve their full purpose. Users of the indicators would be community workers, children’s advocates, government administrators, international organizations and the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

The aim of the proposed project is to address these concerns, by analyzing further the need for indicators to monitor the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and how the various rights can be expressed in practical terms. Further, the project will — through the experience from a series of country case studies — develop a strategy for identification and development of appropriate indicators.

Through the involvement of national research teams in the case studes as well as in the overall development of the project, this project will contribute to capacity building within child research and child welfare in developing countries.

The project will be designed to fit into the overall process within the field of human rights to develop indicators for use in monitoring the various international human rights treaties, particularly the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

The project will also seek to relate closely to relevant development within the field of child welfare and development assistance relevant to children. In particular, experience from the process of implementing the goals of the Plan of Action of the 1990 World Summit for Children is expected to contribute significantly to this project. Furthermore the project will seek close coordination with the already existing efforts of UNICEF to develop indicators relevant to its mandate, as well as child related activities of other UN agencies and of non-governmental organizations.

2. THE NEED FOR INDICATORS

In the interpretation of its mandate, the Committee on the Rights of the Child has decided to give priority to establishing a dialogue with States parties on the actual implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and to invite to an open and constructive discussion of possible problems or obstacles that States parties meet in their efforts to implement the Convention. This will require the most accurate possible information of the actual situation of the children in their countries. It will also require substantial guidance from the Committee as to what kind of information this dialogue should build upon or refer to.

In this context, the Committee has discussed the question of indicators to be used in monitoring the implementation of the Convention. A working group on the issue has been established and stated that, in its view

“… the use of appropriate indicators could contribute to a better assessment of how the rights covered by the Convention were guaranteed and implemented and to an evaluation of progress achieved over time towards the full realization of those rights. It was stressed that the Convention covered a whole range of civil, political, as well as economic, social and cultural rights and that there was therefore a need for a right-by-right approach in order to determine what kind of indicators would be relevant for each of the rights set out in the Convention. Indicators constituted an important component offering the Committee the possibility to assess the progress achieved by States parties.”

The Committee has also stressed that such indicators should meet basic requirements such as validity, objectivity, sensitivity, comparability, accuracy and disaggregation, and referred to ongoing efforts within the UN system to develop “appropriate indicators to measure achievements in the progressive realization of economic, social and cultural rights”.

The first review of reports from States parties on their measures to implement the Convention confirmed the need for appropriate indicators. In the review, it became clear both for the Committee and for independent observers that some tools to measure or assess the implementation are desperately needed in order to proceed beyond a theoretical discussion. Also, it seemed obvious that Governments reporting to the Committee had not been in a position to come up with good use of statistical or other quantitative information to give more specific illustration of the situation in their countries with regard to the status of children’s rights.
UNICEF has become increasingly concerned about, and involved in, issues related to the implementation of the Convention, and particularly how this process relates to other important developments. A representative of the organization has pointed out that

“(a) the complementarity — and relevance for indicators — between the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and of the National Programmes of Action for Children, being developed following the 1990 World Summit for Children; (b) the importance of national capacity-building for monitoring progress on both of these fronts; and (c) the key role of good baseline data and ‘situation analyses’ as part of any strategy for advancing the cause of human rights, including the rights of the child”

are issues of importance for UNICEF in this respect.

A project to identify indicators for use in monitoring the implementation of the Convention would obviously serve the needs of the Committee. Perhaps more importantly, it would also serve States parties in their own efforts to implement and monitor children’s rights. As one of the Committee’s members has stated, the Committee can only serve as a monitor of the monitors, because of its limited capacity to focus on each individual country. To encourage and give guidance to monitoring undertaken by others would therefore be an important aspect of its work. Obviously, the Committee relates primarily to governments, but guidance on the use of indicators would be very useful (and, perhaps, welcomed) by NGOs, community groups, children’s advocates, and others who are concerned by the implementation of the Convention, as well as UNICEF and other UN agencies. Furthermore, a common approach to the identification and use of indicators in the monitoring of the implementation of the Convention would be to the benefit of all groups mentioned above.

The Committee has asked for an article-by-article review of the Convention in order to develop indicators for each of the articles. The feasibility of such an approach should be analyzed, and suggestions made as to what indicators could possibly be used for the various articles — where appropriate. This would be very much in line with one of the conclusions from the recent seminar on indicators on economic, social and cultural rights , where :

” it was stated that to assess a Government’s performance in the field of economic, social and cultural rights, first of all it had to be defined what Governments were required to do and then compare this to what they were willing and able to do, demonstrated by their efforts and accomplishments.”
It should be clearly stated that a project such as the one here proposed, could not aim to come up with the final solutions to the indicators problem, but rather recommend a possible strategy and explore some possible solutions. The overall goal of identifying and developing indicators for use in the monitoring implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child could only be reached through a long-term process, in which the proposed project could serve as the initial phase. Perhaps the main function of the project would be to initiate this process and to set the agenda in collaboration with the main protagonists in this field.

3. CURRENT STATUS OF SOCIAL INDICATORS RELEVANT FOR CHILDREN’S RIGHTS

3.1 Indicators Relevant to Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
As part of the preparations for the World Conference on Human Rights, a seminar was held under the auspices of the UN Centre for Human Rights in January 1993 on “Appropriate indicators to measure achievements in the progressive realization of economic, social and cultural rights”. This seminar was a follow-up to a study carried out by Professor Danilo Türk, Special Rapporteur on the realization of economic, social and cultural rights, and gathered experts from the various UN agencies, human rights treaty bodies and other independent experts and observers. The seminar concluded that :

“… the first priority was to identify and clarify the content of the various rights and obligations. Only then would it be possible to identify the most appropriate way to assess progressive achievement, which may or may not involve the us of statistical indicatros. The Seminar also concluded that monitoring the performance of States in the progressive realization of economic, social and cultural rights requires new approaches in data collection, analysis and interpretation which focuses on the status of the poor and disadvantaged groups.”

In one of the background documents for the seminar, Professor Türk reviews the literature and comes to the conclusion that very few, if any, adequate definitions of ‘indicators’ exist, other than general references that “basically an indicator indicates” or, as the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) states, a “modest” measure of an aspect of life and/or development, that may only give indirect information about what is going on in a particular population at a moment in time, as well as demonstrating changes over time, if the indicator is included in a time series, whether these be improvements or deteriorations. The WHO guidelines for health programme evalutation define indicators as “variables which help to measure changes”, and it is, as such, that they are used in national statistics. Within the UN system, UNRISD provides the following seven criteria for indicator selection: availability, comparability, quality, validity, discriminatory power, balance and avoidance of duplication, and conceptual significance. For WHO the four essential criteria are validity, objectivity, sensitivity and specificity. One cannot help observing that both lists are characterised by a certain vagueness. Unfortunately, the seminar did not provide much clarification on this, or indicate strategies to further develop indicators, other than to state the need for further studies, i. a.:

“There is a need to develop data and information consistent with a human rights approach to enable assessment of the progressive realization of economic, social and cultural rights. The seminar recommends that greater prority should be given to the collection and interpretation of appropriately disaggregated data from a wide range of sources, including governments, non-governmental organizations, academic and research institutions, and in particular from the groups most affected by the non-realization of these rights. Attention should also be given to the preparation of case studies to supplement statistical data.”

3.2 Childhood Social Indicators
In a report to Rädda Barnen, Judith Ennew claims that there is a strong emphasis within childhood indicator work towards health and education indicators, the former being based largely on the first five years of life and maternal health factors. Indicators on childhood conditions outside school and healthcare systems, particularly for the years of middle childhood, are poorly developed.

Statistically a vast amount of data that could be collected about children’s lives — time budgets, economic activities, domestic duties and so forth — is simply ignored. Moreover, children are studied with respect to “children’s institutions”, such as the school or the family, but not with respect to the system of production or the labour market.

In addition, the situation of children in especially difficult circumstances (CEDC) has been subject to substantial research, and much material is available on practical measures to address their problems. Although this has not been done with the Convention as terms of reference, there would obviously be clues to be found as to the development of indicators relating to the rights of children to be protected from exploitation and to exercise their basic rights to health, education and an adequate standard of living.

3.3 Child Rights Indicators
The Swedish and UK Save the Children organizations gathered a group of experts to brainstorm informally with a representative of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, UNICEF and Childwatch International in London, April 1993. The meeting was an effort to address the issue of indicators relevant for the monitoring of implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as expressed by the Committee on the Rights of the Child. Save the Children has a partly coincidental need to develop tools to assess its own work for children, which uses the Convention as terms of reference. For the meeting, three independent consultants had prepared reports which contained reviews of the situation. The reports also contained reviews of the first reports from States parties to the Committee and an assessment of the Committee’s consideration of these reports, and their conclusions.

The meeting reviewed the status of childhood social indicators (as mentioned above) together with the question of how to express implementation of the provisions of the Convention in quantifiable terms. It was stated that the discussion regarding the monitoring of the Convention has occurred because the Convention establishes rights and conditions that are very difficult to measure — in terms either of fulfillment or of violation. In general, statistics are either non existent or of little help if they do exist. The basis for the discussion is, in fact, the challenge to measure the unmeasurable, i. e. objectifying the subjective or “making the soft hard”. One is tempted to say that it is almost impossible to monitor an international human rights instrument such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child in a truly objective or scientific manner. The role of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, then, is more crucial to advocacy and lobbying of States parties than monitoring in the strict sense. The Committee can bring a great deal of pressure to bear on governments to comply with international norms in the children’s rights field and to introduce measures for children.

The lack of precision is evident even with respect to the most fundamental, general principles in the Convention, such as the ‘best interests of the child’. It may seem obvious to note that the best interests of the child are embodied in the achievement of all the rights outlined in the Convention. Yet, when it comes to situations where the conditions for enjoying these rights do not prevail it is clear that there is no consensus on the criteria for achieving children’s best interests.

As described in more detail below, the goals adopted at the World Summit for Children and the process of developing strategies for their achievement could serve as an important vehicle for specifying the relevant provisions of the Convention and helping the process of determining how to assess their monitoring.
The London meeting concluded with an agreement on the following activities: Jo Boyden and Judith Ennew would review existing litterature and indicators relevant to children in especially difficult circumstances (CEDC), to identify approaches that could be useful for the further development of indicators relevant to the monitoring of the Convention. A preliminary version of this report was presented in mid-September 1993 . Childwatch International would continue its efforts to develop the proposal for a project to identify and develop indicators relating to the entire Convention, that could be presented to the Committee on the Rights of the Child and other potential users (i.e. the proposal contained in this document).

3.4 Monitoring the Progress towards Realization of Goals for Children in the 1990s
The Plan of Action from the1990 World Summit for Children is of great importance for the implementation of the Convention for at least three reasons:

i) It contains a pledge from the signatories that their countries will promote ratification, implementation and monitoring of the Convention on the Rights of the Child with high priority;
ii) It contains specific goals (relating to child mortality, maternal mortality, malnutrition, water and sanitation, basic education and illiteracy, and protection of childen in especially difficult circumstances) to be reached by year 2000 which are all related to key provisions of the Convention; and
iii) It calls for a monitoring mechanism to be set up in all countries to “record the progress being made towards the goals”.

UNICEF has been given the role as focal point within the UN system for follow up to the World Summit, and has regularly prepared status reports. In the latest report, it was stated that 136 countries had prepared, or were in the process of preparing, National Programmes of Action for Children to implement the Plan of Action. The report states that

“There is a broad diversity among NPAs, reflecting the herterogeneity of national policies and conditions. Some are broad perspective plans which establish goals and strategies while leaving concrete programmes and projects to shorter-term action plans or to actions at subnational level, or both. Others are lengthy and detailed to the project level and include cost estimates. Many clearly will be subject to revision or further elaboration as the decade progresses.”

Many of the NPAs refer explicitly to the close connection with the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, but also
“… where it is only implicit, the NPA is one of the few instruments available for setting a time-frame for a Government’s minimum core of obligations under the Convention. This has been recognized by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which has included the NPA omong the documents it wishes to review in connection with the reports it receives from States Parties to the Convention.”

In the process of ensuring full implementation of the goals, UNICEF lists a number of concerns and challenges, i.a. that “the identification and establishment of mechanisms for monitoring progress towards national goals for the decade is one of the weaker aspects of many NPAs”. Among the “several factors which are absolutely critical” to make real progress towards reaching the goals “the reinforcement of systems for monitoring progress towards the goals, with capacity for wide public review of progress and shortfalls” is listed as a priority.

3.5 UNICEF and other UN agencies
In addition to its involvement in assisting the follow-up to the World Summit for Children, UNICEF has a long-standing commitment to the development of child related indicators. The yearly publication of a “State of the World’s Children” report presents the latest update on a number of variables related to child welfare relative to the mandate of UNICEF. As James Himes has pointed out, many of these are relevant to the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and should be taken into consideration in any effort to identify indicators for monitoring the Convention. With its new “Progress of the Nations” report, UNICEF has taken another step to develop child rights related indicators. These initiatives, however, only represent the most visible outcomes of a large and ongoing process within UNICEF to identify and develop child related statistics and indicators for children’s welfare.

Similarly, other UN agencies will have data that are relevant for the monitoring of the Convention. Particularly, this would be the case for WHO (health), UNESCO (education and cultural activities) and ILO (child labour), but also UNDP (data on the progress of development). As mentioned above, the UN Centre for Human Rights is involved in process to identify indicators on economic, social and cultural rights, a process that is of great relevance for the study of child rights indicators.

3.6 The International Research Community
As of today, there is no such thing as a united research community dealing with children’s issues. Childwatch International represents an initiative to identify key insitutions/organizations and initiate closer cooperation, particularly to encourage more research addressing issues raised by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and to identify already existing research-based knowledge that could support its implementation.

Obviously, much research has already been conducted or is being undertaken that is of relevance for the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and could create an important source of data for the proposed project. Among institutions that have focussed particularly on the issue of child rights indicators, the Children’s Rights Centre at the University of Gent, Belgium, will play a key role in the actual conduct of the proposed project.

3.7 NGOs
Non-governmental organizations could also play a major part in upgrading research and information on children’s rights globally. Development agencies are particularly well placed to assist with the establishment of culturally appropriate, child-specific social indicators because of their need for programme monitoring. Many are well-versed in participatory methods of monitoring and evaluation.

The international NGOs often represent ‘professional’ expertise in the field of the rights of the child and other child related areas. In the countries where they work, some of them could develop systematic methodological work together with national NGOs, government institutions and research centres or groups. NGOs often have good contacts with the population and can thus provide an analysis of a specific problem, the general situation in a region, etc. Such activities can be initiated without delay as pilot experiences.

It goes without saying that NGOs with capacity for and tradition of conducting research have a role to play both in developing and developed countries, in the implementation process and in establishing the foundations for the monitoring process.

4. COUNTRY CASE STUDY

4.1 A Possible Way to Go
A possible (and feasible) approach would be to embark on a step-by-step strategy to further identify and develop indicators relevant to the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The objective of the study is to combine a theoretical analysis to develop methods for collecting and measuring indicators with practical use of those methods and indicators in some selected countries. The project will include the following steps:

i) Analyze further the need for indicators, and develop a preliminary strategy for expressing implementation of the various articles of the Convention through statistical information or qualitative data.

ii) Review what has already been done in the field of indicators in terms of collection of data, both within the framework of national censuses and by the various UN agencies, and analyze their usefulness for this purpose. The survey of surveys on CEDC undertaken by Jo Boyden and Judith Ennew will serve as an invaluable part of this review. This review is made on the assumption that there is already a substantial body of statistical material available, but that, in many cases, recomputing or disaggregation is necessary to make it sufficiently child centred.

The monitoring system developed for the follow-up to the World Summit for Children goals should also be examined as part of step two. As many of the goals are closely related to Convention articles, any development towards more specific indicators on progress towards fulfillment of the goals will be useful for the monitoring of the Convention.

iii) Carry out country case studies where the search for suitable indicators could take place in connection with the actual process of reporting to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, and the search for illustrative material for the report. This will represent the actual test of the methods developed in step ii), and provide the experience from which to draw conclusions and formulate recommendations for further strategies. The country case studies will take place in close cooperation with the Committee, UNICEF and other relevant UN agencies, branches of the International Save the Children Alliance, and other organizations that have indicated an interest.

iv) Make a comparative analysis of the country case studies, particularly with the aim of indicating strategies for the further use of indicators for children’s rights. The conclusions will be presented as a set of recommendations to the Committee on the Rights of the Child with regard to their request for information from States parties in their reports to the Committee, and guidelines for further research. In addition, the outcome will be m»+ên¿ form of a mk[oring handbook for the use by local government, IGOs and NGOs.

Before the project starts, the proposal should be reviewed by the Committee and other relevant organizations.

4.2 Criteria for Selection of Countries
In order to identify countries that could provide relevant experience for the project and serve as testing ground for various approaches to search for the relevant data, the following four criteria have been developed:

i) Countries should have experience from the process of reporting to the Committee on the Rights of the Child on their implementation of the Convention, and/or have prepared a comprehensive National Programme of Action for Children. This is to ensure that the countries either are motivated for actively addressing the issue of identifying indicators for children’s rights, or have relevant experience from seeking such indicators.

ii) Countries should be in a situation that is comparable to and representative of other countries in their region, and have socio-economic and geographical characteristics of sufficient complexity to produce a variety of living conditions for children.

iii) Countries should have known research communities with the capacity to undertake the case studies, an open and easily accessible government administration, and be easy to operate in.

iv) Countries should have the presence of international development assistance organizations (UNICEF, Save the Children, Plan International, YMCA) and local NGOs (taking advantage of any appropriate coalitions) which could be brought into the project as cooperating partners and supporters of the case study.

Based on these criteria, the following countries have tentatively been identified for possible participation in the study: Colombia, Poland, Thailand and Zimbabwe. With the exception of Colombia, which submitted its report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child in April 1993, all countries are still at various stages of preparing for the report. With the exception of Poland, all countries have prepared a National Programme of Action for Children.

As alternatives, or additional choices if funding permits, the following countries have been identified: Bangladesh, Ecuador, Hungary, Kenya and Lebanon.

The final selection of countries will take place in the initial phase of the project, in cooperation with the sponsors and participating organizations. The number of country case studies will depend on the available funding, but should not be less than four.

4.3 Criteria for Selection of Researchers and Training of Research Teams
In the philosopy of contributing to national capacity building, each of the case studies will be carried out by a team of two to three researchers from that country with relevant competence and affiliation with a national research institution or organization. Researchers should be familiar with the production and use of social statistics as well as with the use of qualitative methods. Researchers should have government contacts and be familiar with national policies for children in their countries.

Before the country case studies take place, a meeting with all the country research teams is planned. The purpose of the meeting will be agreement and standardization of the methodologies developed for this project, and ensure a common approach to the individual studies. The researchers from the national teams will be invited to share their experience with regards to the use and collection of material for indicators, so that this experience can be integrated in the final strategy for the project. This gathering of the researchers will serve as a contribution to national capacity building in child research and social indicators, as the participants will be in contact with state of the art methodology and also have an opportunity to apply their experiences in an international comparative study.

4.4 Coordination and Management
The project will be coordinated by Childwatch International. Dr. Judith Ennew, member of the Executive Board is the focal point within Childwatch for this project.

The study will be conducted jointly with the Children’s Rights Centre at the University of Gent, Belgium, in close cooperation with the Committee on the Rights of the Child, UNICEF, ILO, the Inter-American Children’s Institute and concerned NGOs.
A global management committee will be set up with representatives from Childwatch, the Children’s RightsCentre, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, UNICEF and major donors. The global management committee will be responsible for the over-all conduct of the project. In each country, a local management committee will be set up, with representatives from local donors, UNICEF, the research community, relevant NGOs and the Government to monitor and support the process of the individual country case study.

A Project Coordinator will be appointed and based in Gent to supervise the overall conduct of the project. The Project Coordinator will undertake the initial and final analyses of the project, and monitor the country case studies together with the national management committees and visit each of the countries, as appropiate. The Project Coordinator is expected to work full time during some parts of the project, and part time during others, equivalent to one year of full time.

4.5 Format and Time Schedule
The study will be carried out in following three phases over a period of two to three years. Provided the necessary funding is in place, the project could start in early 1994 and be finalized before the end of 1996.

i) Analytical review of need for indicators and establishing tentative indicators for the various rights enshrined in the Convention and identifying methodology; selection of countries for the case studies and national research teams; and — in collaboration with the country case teams — establishing guidelines for the country case studies.

This phase will start with a meeting of the country case research teams for a review of theoretical context of the project and methodology for conduct of country case studies, and take approximately 6 months. It will conclude with i.a. agreed guidelines for the conduct of country case studies.

ii) Country case studies in the four selected countries. The country case studies will be conducted over a period of 12 months. Each study will take approximately 6 months. Each of the country case research teams will prepare a report on the experience, including conclusions and recommendations from the country studied.

iii) Comparative analysis of the country case studies and preparation of final report with recomendations to the Committee on the Rights of the Child and other target groups, in collaboration with the country case teams. Six months, including workshop with country case research teams.

5. BUDGET AND FUNDING

Total costs for the project are estimated to approximately USD 490.000. This includes salary for the project coordinator and replacement salaries for the country case study research teams, administrative overheads, travels, two workshops for the joint research teams, local meetings for the country management teams, and two meetings for the global management committee. More exact costs will depend i.a. on local costs in countries selected for the case studies. (For futher details, see the attached Preliminary Budget.)

Funds will be sought from various sources, such as UNICEF, the Nordic governments, the Inter-American Children’s Institute, Rädda Barnen, Plan International and other NGOs. For individual country case studies funding will also be sought from local and regional sources.

6. COOPERATION WITH OTHER ORGANIZATIONS AND PROJECTS

As indicated in the introduction, the project will seek to integrate relevant contributions from a various of sources in the project and seek close cooperation with institutions and organizations that are involved in activites relevant to the identification and development of child rights indicators as well as their use.

6.1 Relevant Research Institutions or Organizations
Through the networks of Childwatch International and the Children’s Rights Centre at the University of Gent, connections will be made with research institutions with relevant competence, to seek their contributions, as relevant.

Close cooperation will also be sought with the Swedish Agency for Research Cooperation with Developing Countries (SAREC) which has extensive experience from capacity building support to developing countries as well as social indicators.

6.2 UNICEF
Close cooperation and coordination with UNICEF will be natural for the following reasons: firstly, for its role in developing a monitoring strategy for National Programmes for Children; secondly, for its general work with indicators in relation to its own work (as expressed i.a. through the “State of the World’s Children” and the “Progress of the Nations” reports); thirdly for its programme to study aspects of the implementation of the Convention under the auspices of its International Child Development Centre in Florence; and finally for its assistance to the Committee on the Rights of the Child through the Child Rights and Public Policy Section at the New York Headquarters.

6.3 ILO/IPEC
Addressing the issue of child labour is currently high on the agenda of the International Labour Organization (ILO). A two-year Interdepartmental Programme is focussing on the role of ILO in implementing existing internaional law protecting child workers. In addition, a special International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) is developing strategies and methodologies to eliminate such child labour as is harmful for children’s development.

Childwatch is currently working with IPEC to develop methodologies for data collection on, and development of indicators for, child labour for use in establishing baseline data to assess the current extent of the problem and to monitor progress towards the elimination of child labour. The expected outcome of this cooperation will contribute substantially to the initial phases of the child rights indicators project.

6.4 Save the Children and other NGOs
Save the Children – UK and Rädda Barnen initiated the preliminary discussions and studies on child rights indicators. They have commissioned the survey of surveys on CEDC. This study will provide an important input to step one in the project, the analysis of existing material and methodologies. It will be natural to continue the cooperation with these organizations, particularly in the selection of countries for case studies and their actual conduct. Childwatch Internatioal will also seek cooperation with other interested NGOs working for children and children’s rights to maximize the input of practical field experience in the project.

7. DISSEMINATION OF RESULTS

7.1 Committee on the Rights of the Child and Governments
The primary target group for the results of the study will be the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which on several occasions has asked for tools to assess the implementation of children’s rights in countries that have ratified the Convention. The Committee might want to include in its guidelines for reporting more specific advice about what kind of statistical information it will like to see as indications of the status of the various rights of the Convention in a country. A standardized set of indicators will also make it possible to draw comparisons between countries – if desired.

As mentioned, the Committee in many ways functions as the monitor of the monitors. The true monitors of the Convention are to be found at the national level. Governments and others should, according to the Committee, engage in a continuous monitoring of children’s rights, rather than making it a one-off exercise each time a report to the Committee is due. Indicators will thus have a widespread use beyond the Committee. The project will disseminate its results to Governments through, and in cooperation with, the Committee .

7.2 Concerned IGOs and NGOs
Many inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations are involved in facilitating the implementation of the Convention, and will have the same needs as the Committee for tools to assess the situation of children’s rights in a country. Most IGOs and NGOs specialize in certain areas or issues, and will already have at their disposal some indicators relevant to children’s rights in these areas. The outcomes of this project will provide them with a more integrated perspective on implementation of children’s rights and help the cooperation between NGOs and further development of their programmes.

7.3 The General Public
In its plans for an annual, international TV broadcast on children’s situation, the Childwatch-TV project will be constantly looking for new material to present. The outcomes of the indicators project will give more systematized information on the countries selected for the country case studies. Thus, it will be possible to provide more accurate and comprehensive information on the situation of children in those countries studied, that could serve as useful input to these programmes.


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