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This project is part of the larger GlobalChild program of research, which aims to develop a comprehensive child rights monitoring tool, based on the rights articulated under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The Global Child Rights Dialogue (GCRD) research team seeks to obtain children’s thoughts and feedback worldwide on how they would know that their rights are being implemented; this information will be integrated into the work done so far by the GlobalChild Indicators Development Team. The GCRD project team supplies the tools necessary for participating countries to hold workshops worldwide. These workshops are developed to collect qualitative data from children aged 10-17 years.

The GCRD team invites participation from child advocates and organizations all over the world. We are attempting to have a fair representation of countries from every region, proportional to the number of the world’s children living in each region.

Workshops can take place from now until January 2019. Data must be shared with the GCRD team ideally within 2 weeks after each workshop.

The only cost for setting up workshops is for printing the material for discussions and providing some snacks for the participating children. As this project does not have a budget allocated to it, we request that institutions absorb this nominal cost when possible.

After agreeing to participate in the GCRD project, the next steps are:

1. Completing the preliminary questionnaire and emailing it to globalchild@unb.ca;
2. Receiving the facilitator’s pack and instructions from us;
3. Recruiting children and setting up one or more workshops to facilitate child rights dialogue,
   1. Inform us (globalchild@unb.ca) about your recruitment plan as well as the dates of your workshops,
   2. Each workshop will take about 3-4 hours, plus a few hours to plan and a few hours to organize the data;
4. Compiling the collected data in an organized document as instructed in the facilitator’s pack, including a transcription of any audio recordings that were taken;
5. Placing the collected data in the shared online folder, for which you will be granted access;
6. Sharing the report of your workshop as well as the child-friendly versions of the report, which will be provided to you, with the participating children and your networks.

If you have questions at any time, contact globalchild@unb.ca.

The GCRD team will provide you with a comprehensive facilitator’s pack and child-friendly versions of CRC articles. The pack contains guidelines on how to host the workshops, examples from pilot workshops, a reporting template, research ethics considerations, as well as sample information leaflets and consent forms.

The GCRD project team can provide English, French, Spanish, Arabic, and Mandarin versions of the workshop documents. For all other languages, the participating organization/facilitator is responsible for arranging for the documents to be translated.

Content that the GCRD team is expecting is children’s thoughts about how they would know that their rights are being implemented. We are not collecting data on their personal experiences. The data reports include:

1. Basic demographic information about the children
2. Anonymized transcript (provided consent is given to take audio recordings)
3. Facilitator’s reflections about the workshop
4. Photographs of the work produced by children

Data should be shared with the GCRD team within two weeks of each workshop.

Children’s privacy will be protected in several ways:

1. Facilitators are asked to complete confidentiality agreements;
2. No photographs will be taken of the children’s faces;
3. All audio recordings will be deleted as soon as they are transcribed;
4. Only anonymous information is shared outside children’s countries (e.g. names and other identifying information will be removed before it is sent to the GCRD project team for analysis);
5. All identifying information at local organizational offices will be stored safely and securely, and will be destroyed after a pre-determined period of time.

The Centre for Children’s Rights at Queen’s University Belfast (Northern Ireland) obtained research ethics approval for their work in developing the facilitator’s pack and child-friendly versions of CRC articles. The University of Victoria (Canada) is responsible for obtaining research ethics approval for the project guidelines, management and data handling. As a rule, participating organizations around the world are responsible for following their institutional guidelines for the ethical conduct of these workshops. This may look different depending on the organization. For example:

• Facilitators at NGOs, government departments, charities, etc. should follow their institutional guidelines and requirements for child protection/safeguarding, etc.
• Facilitators at universities will be required to apply for approval by a research ethics board

The GCRD team also requires facilitators to submit an ethics declaration, agreeing to conduct the workshops in an ethical manner that follows the research guidelines provided in the facilitator’s pack, as well as their local organizational and legal requirements for child protection and safeguarding.

Partners and collaborators

• Professor Laura Lundy (Co-Director, Centre for Children’s Rights, Queen’s University Belfast)
• Michelle Templeton (Research Fellow, Centre for Children’s Rights, Queen’s University Belfast)
• Bronagh Byrne (Co-Director, Centre for Children’s Rights, Queen’s University Belfast)
• Olivia Lecoufle (Child Protection Advisor – Global Lead on Children and Work, Save the Children Canada)
• George Moschos (InArt12; Children’s rights expert, former Children’s Ombudsman in Greece)
• Ziba Vaghri (Principal Investigator, Director of the GlobalChild program, University of Victoria)

Staff

• Katrina Ostapchuk (Program Manager of the GlobalChild program, University of New Brunswick)