Our work reflects Save the Children’s globally agreed priority areas: the EVERY ONE campaign for child survival and health, and Emergencies. We also work on the organisation’s major Global Initiatives in areas such as Child Rights Governance, Child Protection and Education.
EVERY ONE
In Geneva we contribute to our global campaign in a number of ways.
Local to Global
The Local to Global project links local action for change by children, families and their communities to our global advocacy voice, to improve children’s survival and health. It connects participatory, rights-based programmes in the field in India, Zambia and Afghanistan with national level advocacy in those countries, and joins them up with our global advocacy influence in Geneva, Brussels, New York and Addis Abeba.
Children’s right to health and health care
Save the Children and partners (WHO, UNICEF and World Vision) work with the Committee on the Rights of the Child in issuing a General Comment to strengthen the legal frameworks and ensure governments live up to their promises to deliver on children’s right to health and health care. We work through the Human Rights Council to make sure children’s right to survival and health is highlighted as a duty for all states and is funded and implemented. Geneva is the base for many of the world’s leading actors on children’s health such as WHO, GAVI, GAIN, and the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) with whom we work in dialogue and partnership.
Emergencies
Our colleagues in Geneva play a leading role in Save the Children’s humanitarian operations. This includes the Education Cluster jointly led by Save the Children and UNICEF.
Chotti (6 yrs) with her friend Suraj. She is a 'rag picker' in Delhi and wakes at dawn to collect and sell scrap metal, earning around £1 per day. Lucia Zoro / Save the Children
Advocacy is an important tool in Save the Children’s humanitarian response. We speak out to ensure that the response in any emergency respects humanitarian principles and is appropriate to children’s needs and protects their rights. We advocate towards national governments, donors or international institutions to keep children high on the agenda. We also advocate at the local level, with community leaders, militia heads or police. By giving a voice to children, we can create lasting change for many more than those we can reach through our programmes alone.
In developing the report “Too little, too late: child protection funding in emergencies”, the office played a key role on behalf of the Child Protection Working Group of the Global Protection Cluster.
Child Rights Governance
As part of Save the Children’s Child Rights Governance Initiative, the Geneva Office aims to strengthen the frameworks, mechanisms and decisions which shape the lives of every child on the planet. These governance issues are central to Geneva processes and debates. They provide a means to turn short term promises into long term commitment, continuing the work started by the pioneers of children’s rights.
Human Rights Council
We raise priority child rights issues through making statements at the Human Rights Council and through engaging with bodies such as the Committee on the Rights of the Child. The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a unique process which involves a review of the human rights records of all 192 UN Member States once every four years, to ensure they fulfill their human rights obligations. We coordinate UPR advocacy at the Geneva and national level to ensure that our key child rights concerns are raised and are then followed-up and implemented.
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
Save the Children with a coalition of over 80 international and national NGOs helped ensure the successful adoption of the Optional Protocol on 19 Dec 2011 by the UN General Assembly.
The new protocol will enable children who claim that their rights have been violated to bring a complaint to an international committee of children’s rights experts.
Save the Children Geneva Office supports the work of the Committee on the Rights of the Child in developing a General Comment on business and children’s rights. We are also involved with the Child Rights and Business Principles Initiative (CRBPI).
Child Protection, Education
Save the Children Geneva staff take a leading role in our international Child Protection Initiative focused on Children without Appropriate Care, Child Protection in Emergencies, Child Labour and Physical and Humiliating Punishment.
In the area of Education we support the advocacy efforts of our colleagues around the globe, and in particular the issue of Education in emergencies through our joint leadership of the global Education Cluster.
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