
Save Child Rights Connect - Petition to the FDFA to reverse it decision to not fund Child Rights Connect

Dear Ms Piaget,
Petition to the FDFA to reverse it decision to not fund Child Rights Connect
We, the undersigned members of the global Child Rights Connect network, call on the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) Human Security Division to reverse its decision to discontinue funding Child Rights Connect.
After 40 years of existence – celebrated this year with senior representation from the FDFA – we understand that this decision presents a real risk that the organisation will have to permanently close its operations on 1 October 2023. The dissolution of Child Rights Connect would have a hugely detrimental impact on the global child rights movement.
Child Rights Connect for us plays a critical role in our work to promote and protect child rights at the local and regional levels. Through this unique network, we are connected to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and other UN human rights mechanisms. Some of us – especially smaller organisations within the network – would be unable to navigate the UN system without the capacity building and technical assistance of Child Rights Connect. In some cases, this would mean the absence of our voices (and the voices of children from our countries) at the United Nations or, at the very least, a considerably less effective way of sharing with UN mechanisms critical monitoring and reporting on the state of child rights on the ground.
Whether large or small, all members of the Child Rights Connect network are able – through the network – to take collective action in response to the growing backlash against human rights and child rights and to promote and protect the rights of children who represent around one-third of the world’s population.
We respectively appeal to the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs to reconsider and reverse its decision so as to allow for the continuation of Child Rights Connect.
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