Mar 9
Street children on the agenda for a day...
Today the UN Human Rights Council held discussions on the situation of children on the streets for the first time! The Consortium for Street Children in a tweet this afternoon stated that the key conclusions from the day were to: listen to street children; adopt itegrated approaches; share good practice. There is nothing groundbreaking or surprising about these objectives, but the critical point is about how these will be implemented and whether there really is the desire to do so.
At its worst, these events are always the stage for a multiple of platitudes to be presented and a chance for NGOs and individuals to have their 'moment in the sun'. But they can also form an important part in developing a political discourse on an issue that is often ignored by governments and civil society alike. It was summed up in the morning session that governments have to be prepared to do deal with street children. It's a slow slog but we all have to participate. This is very true, but the real agents of change will not come from UN resolutions (although they play an important part in ratifying government commitment), or NGO policy reports but from the local practitioners, activists, former street children and street children. Change needs to be harnessed by those who are the recipients of decades of neglect, injustices suffered, and arrogance encountered by others who believe they know best.
My organisation, Street Action along with many of our partners, believes that partnerships, greater co-operation, but most importantly empowering those in the 'south' to drive the agenda will be the only way to see fundamental and constructive change. Our part is to partner and work with those on the ground to help provide guidance for constructive and meaningful responses that might prevent the repetition of mistakes and misguided actions. It was argued this morning that in moving from a charity based to a rights based approach, you give a child back his/her voice. This is an important point and is backed up by a new report Including Street Children http://streetaction.org/ that I recently co-wrote with Glynis Clacherty on the situation of street children in Durban. South Africa. The report argues that street children are a difficult group to conceptualise on a global scale which results in a limited capacity to inform policy makers and practitioners. What is central to the analysis and recommendations is that street children hold vital knowledge around their experiences and therefore are the greatest agents of change and resource to understanding the issue.
Listening to the debate on child protection, UNICEF spoke of its desire to re-inforce the need for a renewed focus on equity to ensure that policies to protect children reach their full potential without discrimination. Street children have been discriminated against for too long and we do have an opportunity to change this if we do listen to street children, adopt integrated approaches to tackle their needs and to share good practice. If street children are not included and seen as the driving force in this process then the revolution of change we all hope for will be a long time coming. My friend and fellow activist Diarmuid O Neill, CEO of Retrak, tweeted with a final thought which read: "Today was a landmark day at the UN Human Right Council, but we all need to work together to ensure it doesn't become a footnote." A wise warning indeed!
