Manuela Pegoraro

How can drug policies better support and reflect the rights, needs and realities of children and young people? This question was at the centre of ‘Transforming Drug Policy: A Focus on Children and Youth’, a collaborative initiative led by the Global Commission on Drug Policy and involving Youth RISE and the Global Campus of Human Rights. The project sought to ensure that children and young people themselves could contribute to global discussions on drug policy and its impact on their lives.

In refugee camps on the edge of Cox’s Bazar (Bangladesh), where more than sixty per cent of the population are children and youth, school is not something children take for granted. For many, education is irregular, limited or simply out of reach. It was in this setting that children from the Global Campus Refugee Child Leadership Team in Bangladesh began asking not why they were excluded, but what they could do about it.