Advocacy & awareness-raising

Advocacy and awareness raising of child rights throughout government and society, including independent advocacy for children.

To be useful, child rights must be known and understood. This means that local government authorities, members of civil society organizations, academics, media and business professionals, parents/caregivers and children must be aware of child rights, understand the concepts, and be able to put them into practice.

Advocacy works to ensure that children’s rights are considered in government laws, policies, budgets and programmes. An independent advocate, such as through the office of the ombudsman for children or a child rights-focused non-governmental organization, serves to represent the best interests of children and youth, independently of political structures.

Raising awareness on child rights can be done through, for example, sustained capacity building, child rights education and communication campaigns. Collaboration with civil society, children and youth groups, the private sector, academia and the media contributes to these efforts.

Children themselves must understand their own rights and how to assert these. This can be done through, for example, child rights education in school or through life and livelihood skills education and other outreach programmes for out-of-school children.