Webinar Recording: Strengthening  Children’s Care Reforms through Access to Justice

Better Care Network, Child Identity Protection (CHIP), Institute for Inspiring Children's Futures, UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies & UNICEF

This webinar, held December 16, 2025, spotlighted the powerful intersection between two consequential global advocacy movements in human rights: the reform of alternative care systems for children and the advancement of children’s access to justice.

Grounded in a commitment to amplifying children’s views and lived experiences, and driven by the ambition to realize children’s human rights within alternative care, the session: 

  • Explored the role of child-centred justice and other mechanisms in enabling children and families to actively claim their rights. This includes securing access to essential services that prevent unnecessary family separation, and the ability to challenge inappropriate placement or gatekeeping decisions, for example.
  • Examined how justice and other mechanisms can provide effective remedies when children’s rights are violated in alternative care, and how accountability can be leveraged to drive systemic change across care and protection systems, ultimately safeguarding children’s rights to prevent harm.  

The session inspired collaborative strategies that accelerate the advancement of children's rights across care and justice sectors.  

The webinar also formed the launch of the new UNICEF Reimagining Justice for Children Technical Brief: Children in Civil Proceedings.

Speakers

  • Sheema Sen Gupta, Director, Child Protection and Migration, UNICEF
  • Benoit Van Keirsbilck, Member, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
  • Ester Valenzuela, Professor, Faculty of Law and Director of Postgraduate Diploma in Children’s Rights,  Universidad Diego Portales, Chile
  • K.G. Nimali S. Kumari, Care experienced Advocate, Sri Lanka
  • Karabo Ozah, Director of the Centre for Child Law, University of Pretoria
  • David Bailey, Head of Children’s Care Reform Campaign, UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Moderators

  • Florence Martin, Executive Director, Better Care Network
  • Jennifer Davidson, Lead, Global Working Group on SDG 16+ Justice for Children and Professor, Institute for Inspiring Children’s Futures at the University of Strathclyde
English Recording
Spanish Recording