Children’s rights organisations from 20 countries were invited to the conference in order to present their experiences in child care and child protection advocacy within their represented country and assess their opportunities to cooperate. The Foundation was represented by dr. Nóra Sánta, Head of the Pro Bono Child Right Centre.
The A20 Social Leadership Summit on Child Advocacy, a 9-day international conference on children’s rights, was organized in Beijing in March 2018. Organizations on children’s rights from 20 countries were invited to the conference in order to present their experiences in advocacy of child care and protection within their represented country and assess their opportunities to cooperate.
Representatives and programmes
Representatives of the invited non-governmental organizations presented their programmes and main purposes, as well as their challenges and good practices. As the Head of the Pro Bono Child Right Centre at the Hintalovon Child Rights Foundation, Nóra presented the legal assistance service of the Centre, our children’s rights programs and the child rights ambassador program. Renowned experts were invited to the different sections of the conference thus participants had the opportunity to learn from the Head of the ECPAT International and to meet the Head of the Chinese office of UNICEF.
During the 9 days we not only participated in the round-table sessions, but we also had the opportunity to learn about the operation of Beijing Children’s Legal Aid and Research Centre. Lihua Tong, the Head of the Beijing Children’s Legal Aid Centre has been working together with more than 8000 pro bono lawyers and he has provided assistance in thousands of child rights cases. In addition to the pro bono child rights representation, they regularly publish research and case studies. The Centre has been working with the authorities and the Chinese Government for 20 years and all of them recognise and respect the importance of the cooperation.
It was a very interesting experience to realize that even though we come from different parts of the world to the conference, we have to face similar challenges such as the recognition and introduction of children’s rights, the training of professionals and the burden presented by the large number of cases
said Nóra Sánta.
Pro Bono Child Right Centre was awarded a prize for its work
The Chinese press and the various civil organisations also attended the presentations of the conference so it was an especially great honour that the Pro Bono Child Right Centre was awarded a prize for its work.
To collect and record the experiences of the participating countries a document was prepared which set out the goals of the 20 countries with the view of their future cooperation.
“It was very interesting and honourable to think together with so many specialist, to get to know their opinion and to think jointly how could we work more efficiently to realize the children’s best interest” – stated Nóra Sánta.
