During its 73rd Session, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted the Resolution (A/C.3/73/L.26/Rev.1) on the promotion and protection of the rights of children, requesting the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its 74th session in 2019 a comprehensive report on the rights of the child. The focus of the 2019 report is on children without parental care.
UNICEF is the lead agency tasked with drafting the report, in consultation with and contributions from other UN agencies, departments, funds and programmes, and civil society organizations. The drafting process is conducted in close collaboration with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which is in charge of submitting the report to the Executive Office of the Secretary General.
As the agency responsible for drafting the report, UNICEF is particularly interested in receiving concise, specific information related to progress made or challenges faced at the country-level. For example, you may wish to reference care reform processes that are underway in specific countries, developments/setbacks since the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children were endorsed by the UNGA in 2009, and recommendations as to how states could better support implementation of the Guidelines.
UNICEF has now initiated the process of inviting inputs from civil society organizations to contribute to the report of the Secretary General, and created an online platform for receiving inputs. Inputs can be provided directly on this online template in the link provided here: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=lQFBd-EUuE-QS6sYkgI2Z5GLyp3pxjxJgZVZmNgFiFhUREdBUjc2WVlPVVYxVFRKREc3OTBXOFNERy4u
The report has a standardized format and structure, with a fixed word limit of 8,500 words. Given this, UNICEF would be grateful if contributors could provide concise and strategic inputs by COB 7 April 2019.
