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| Advocacy
One of CHI's main objectives is to have the voices of children heard and to voice their concerns to policy and decision makers. To do so, the CHI network advocates on behalf of children at all levels of governance. The goals of CHI’s advocacy efforts are threefold: 1. Addressing and preventing violations of children’s rights 2. Recognition of child helplines as an essential tool for child protection 3. Strengthening and developing of child protection systems Children’s rights The advocacy efforts (and the work of the child helplines) of CHI are grounded in the rights of children as outlined in the Convention of the Rights of the Child, that was adopted by the United Nations in 1989. It has been adopted since then by almost all countries. To ensure that the rights of every child are met and protected, CHI advocates to international organisations, such as United Nations agencies and committees, to regional organisations (for example, the Organisation of American States, the League of Arab States and the European Union), and on the national and sub-national level to governments, their agencies and child protection services. To learn more about CHI's efforts on children's rights, please click here. Recognition of child helplines as an essential tool for child protection Child helplines are essential for the protection of children and their rights all over the world. Millions of children contact child helplines every year. This makes child helplines essential for child protection. Highlighting this role is one of the main goals of CHI’s advocacy efforts. Since CHI was founded in 2003, child helplines in the network have had more than 68 million contacts with children (2003 - 2008 ). Collection and analysis of the data on these contacts is one of the main characteristics of the advocacy of CHI and the child helplines. Our advocacy efforts are based first and foremost on quantative data. For more information on CHI’s data collection, please visit this page. Using this data, CHI has been highly successful in making real change at the highest level. A significant number of recommendations and declarations have been issued by international organisations, bodies and conferences recommending child helplines as an essential tool towards child protection. For an overview of the most important recommendations and declarations, please click here. The telecommunications sector is an important partner for CHI as telecommunication is an pivotal tool for child helplines. CHI strives to partner with the telecommunication sector to have a child helpline in every country in the world that is accessible for all children through a short, easy-to-remember telephone number that is free of cost. For more information on our efforts in the telecommunication sector, please click here. Strengthening and developing child protection systems Child helplines provide active listening, counselling and referral services. If needed, child helplines fill the gaps in the child protection system by providing assistance, shelter, education and if needed intervention and litigation services. This makes child helplines a central part in any child protection system. One of CHI’s main advocacy goals is to strengthen child protection systems all around the world. top |
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