With the coordination of the Hintalovon Foundation, the Child Participation Working Group of the NGO Coalition on the Rights of the Child was established. The purpose of the professional forum is to help the cooperation of member organizations in order to take into account the opinions of children.
Every child has the right to participate in matters that affect them and to have their views taken into account. This is particularly important in the work concerning the protection of children and their rights. Not only because then we can credibly stand up for them, but by thinking together we find more effective and better answers to problems. The work started in the Coalition contributes to children being involved by more and more organizations and with a higher quality of involvement.
The working group held its first meeting on 29 June in 2022, with the participation of 17 professionals, including representatives of SOS Children’s Villages, UNICEF, Kék Vonal, SINOSZ and Hintalovon, being the coordinator. According to the coalition’s plans, it will meet 6-8 times a year, also counting on the participation of their young volunteers.
Since its establishment in 2016, children have had an active and meaningful role in Hintalovon Foundation. In these years, we have learned a lot about working together with children, based on which we review and adapt the program every year. In recent years, we have helped other organizations, including the Council of Europe, to consider children’s opinion in their work. We would like to do this well; we want to learn about other people’s experience. We were happy to see that others are doing the same, and that more and more people are interested in the meaningful, high-quality implementation of children’s participation. The working group gives us the opportunity to talk about who involves the children and how, as well as to collect and present good practices
Barbara Németh, head of the Child Participation Program and coordinator of the working group.
The goal of the Child Rights Coalition, which brings together organizations and specialists related to child rights and child protection, is to facilitate the implementation and follow-up of the recommendations made by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child for Hungary, and to draw attention to child rights. Several working groups work in the Coalition (Child Welfare – Child Poverty, Violence, Discrimination, Education, Alternative Care and Child Participation working groups), with the coordination of the member organizations. In recent years, Hintalovon Foundation has coordinated the Working Group on Violence, as part of which a study was prepared last year on the impact of political communication against LGBTQ people.
