In Focus
Learning to Live Together, a resource material to nurture ethical values needed to learn to live together in plural societies, is now available for teachers and youth leaders. Read more ...
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Learning to Live Together
Children in World Religions
Children and Media
Child Rights
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Child Rights
Arigatou International is dedicated to securing the well-being and rights of children and advancing the culture of peace through interreligious dialogue and cooperative action. It provides a values-based platform for implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) by mobilizing faith-based initiatives for children in support of the United Nations commitment to child rights and the Millennium Development Goals.In May 2000, in cooperation with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the organization established the Global Network of Religions for Children (GNRC), the only worldwide interfaith network of religious leaders and development organizations exclusively devoted to the rights of the child. It also conducts international advocacy on child’s rights and participates actively in various UN-related processes, for instance, by chairing the NGO Group for the CRC.
The organization, as the convener of the NGO Group on Education, Literacy and Media, and hold-ing the presidency (2005 – 2007) of the NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child:
Organized the Child Rights Caucus and helped develop agendas and resolutions in the area of child rights, the right to education and the United Nations Study on Violence against Children at the 60th, 61st and 62nd Session of the Human Rights Commission in Geneva.
- Organized a meeting during the 37th Session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (13 September – 8 October 2004) with Committee members to discuss implementation of the CRC. This initiative led to annual meetings of Committee members with the NGO Group for the CRC.
In addition, representatives of the organization:
- Made oral interventions during the Days of General Discussion organised in Geneva by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, in 2004 on “Implementing Child Rights in Early Child-hood,” in 2005 on “Children Without Parental Care,” in 2006 on “The Right of the Child to be Heard” and in 2007 on “Resources for the Rights of the Child”;
- Participated in the Third and final Preparatory Committee for the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva 19 – 30 September 2005 and co-signed a joint statement submitted to the Tunis Summit;
- Participated in the 60th Annual DPI/ NGO Conference “Climate Change, How It Impacts Us All” in New York 5 – 7 September 2007;
- Attended the High-level Dialogue on Interreligious and Intercultural Understanding and Cooperation for Peace held at United Nations Headquarters in New York on 4 October 2007;
- Met personally with the United Nations Secretary-General and Deputy Secretary-General on 3 October 2007 to report progress on the ethics education initiative pledged in an oral address to the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children in May 2002.
- Presented a written contribution to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, Day of General Discussion - 19 September 2008 “The Right of the Child to Education in Emergency Situations” that can be found at CRIN webpage, http://www.crin.org/docs/arigatou.pdf
Arigatou International is a member of the Child Rights Information Network, CRIN.