The Global Campus of Human Rights has released a new publication highlighting how children and young people across multiple regions are shaping human rights work through the Global Campus Child Leadership Team (CLT) and Youth Advisory Group (YAG).
Titled Child Participation at the Global Campus: Strengthening Child and Youth Leadership Worldwide, the publication documents a growing body of child-led initiatives on mental health, climate justice, education, digital safety and democratic participation across Africa, Asia-Pacific, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Europe, Southeast Europe and Latin America & the Caribbean.
Developed within the framework of the longstanding partnership between the Global Campus and Right Livelihood, the publication reflects a shared commitment to moving beyond symbolic participation and recognising children and young people as active rights-holders, researchers, advocates and community leaders. As noted in the foreword by Jon Warmington-Lundström (Right Livelihood), meaningful youth participation requires “a redistribution of power, resources and trust.”
The publication traces the evolution of the Child Leadership Team since 2022, when children participating in an international child-led conference on mental health decided they wanted to remain connected and continue working together after the event ended. Since then, national and regional CLTs have developed into a global network of children aged 12–17 identifying priorities, designing projects and advocating for change in their communities and beyond.
The publication features 29 projects, many of which could inspire others interested in promoting genuine child participation and leadership: from a reels contest in Kyrgyzstan and child-led climate justice initiatives in India, to a toolkit developed in Armenia to promote inclusion through the arts; digital self-defence workshops in Southeast Europe; children’s perspectives on the impact of waste disposal on education in Buenos Aires; a child-led conference on mental health in schools in Africa; and collaborations between Bhutanese children and university law students.
The publication also foregrounds the reflections of children and young people themselves. “We have been part of the creation,” writes Nina Gavrilović (former CLT and current YAG member), describing how children were involved from the beginning in shaping the CLT model rather than simply being invited into a pre-existing structure.
A key aspect of the initiative has been the work of the Global Campus Child Rights Regional Experts from across the Global Campus regions (i.e. those hosting our regional Master’s programmes), who accompany and support child-led processes across the network. Through this publication, we wish to recognise their role in sustaining the CLT across different regional contexts and in creating the conditions for meaningful participation and growth.
Child Participation at the Global Campus: Strengthening Child and Youth Leadership Worldwide is available at:
https://doi.org/10.25330/3139 (pdf version)
https://my.visme.co/v/4k9j74oy-6k96y6 (as flipbook)
