Last year we have initiated our Global Advocacy Campaign “The 4 Steps to Equality” calling on regional, national and local Governments to ensure that all the measures included in the Convention on the Rights of the Child are fully applied to street connected children. Throughout the five-year campaign, our aim is to persuade Governments to implement in full the recommendations of the UN General Comment No. 21 on Children in Street Situations.
This year, we are concentrating on the first step – “Commit to Equality”. We call on Governments to recognise that street children have the same rights as any other child – and to reflect that in law and policy.
We will also be launching our new digital platform – the Legal Atlas – on the 12th April. This highlights laws and policies that affect street children around the world. It will also give information on whether each country’s laws meets the UN’s standards for street children, set out in the General Comment 21.
Based on the 3 key areas this project highlights, we will be encouraging the public to ask their governments to:
- Stop police round-ups of street children
- Give street children legal ID so they can access services like healthcare and education
- Stop arresting and punishing street children just because they spend time on the streets