Title: Defence for Children International

Source/Sponsoring Agency: Defence for Children International

URL: http://www.dci-is.org/

Date Checked: 1/21/2009      Status: Active

Date Annotated: 1/21/2009

Topics: Civil Rights; Human Rights Law; International Law; Poverty Law

Other keywords: Children and the law; Rights of the Child, Child labor; Juvenile justice; Child trafficking; Children in armed conflict, Sexual exploitation; Child soldiers, Children in conflict with the law; Child abuse

Contents: Established in 1979, Defence for Children International (DCI) is a nonprofit international organization that works to protect children’s rights. Through its national sections and associated members, DCI is active in over 40 countries, addressing issues of child labor, juvenile justice, trafficking, and children in armed conflict. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, DCI’s International Secretariat (IS) serves as the hub of the organization by providing representation, technical assistance, support, and capacity-building expertise to DCI’s national sections and associated members on both international and regional levels. DCI’s website encourages advocates of children’s rights to become involved in their mission through donations, internships, employment, or by becoming national sections or associate members, and provides the necessary information and forms to do so. The site is current with relevant news updates, the most recent of which document the death toll of children in Gaza. Although the most recent press release posted to the site was dated February, 2007, DCI’s two ongoing newsletters, the Juvenile Justice Newsletter and the DCI Newsletter, are still regularly published on a bi-monthly basis and are available for free in PDF format in English, French and Spanish. Free archives of a previous newsletter, the Child Labour Newsletter, are available as well. The site also provides free access to DCI’s Position Statements, which appear to be published on an as-needed basis. Various other DCI publications include Fact Sheets (available for free in PDF format) and other more in-depth documents that may be ordered through the site for a small fee plus postage. Most significantly, the site hosts an online database in which a self-described “vast” collection of over 17,000 individually indexed, multilingual publications on children’s rights issues are assembled. The publications include articles, case studies and reports from journals and serial publications, monographs, magazines, newsletters, newspaper clippings, books and official UN and individual government documents. Sexual exploitation, child soldiers, child labor, street children, children in conflict with the law, child maltreatment and juvenile justice are a few of the issues addressed. Unfortunately the site does not currently provide public access to the database, but materials may be accessed by email request through the site, or in person at DCI’s office in Geneva, Switzerland. DCI also provides reports on the United Nations sessions on the Rights of the Child with a Juvenile Justice Focus. Full reports are available in PDF for free in English and occasionally in French and Spanish. The most recent report is from October 2008. Finally, the site also provides links to regional DCI websites around the world, some of which offer an English language option for viewing their content. These sites are of varying sophistication and currency, but often provide, at a minimum, their organization’s newsletters, and frequently, more substantial publications regarding the rights of children. Regrettably, each one shares in painting a grim picture of the reality of children’s rights in the world today.

Author of Annotation: A. Emerson