The Terre des Hommes Schweiz-Suisse Alliance’s advocacy for children’s rights in Switzerland

Member of the Swiss Network for the Rights of the Child since 2019 and of its Executive Committee since 2020, the Alliance is now one of the Swiss NGOs actively participating in the drafting of the report on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) by the Confederation. This report, drawn up at each cycle of Switzerland’s periodic review of the conformity of its laws and practices about the rights recognised in the CRC, complements the status report of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and allows the Committee to make recommendations for the improvement of the situation in Switzerland.

These recommendations serve as a reference document – national and international – on the respect, promotion and realisation of children’s rights in Switzerland. Every parliamentary or federal initiative or object, and in general every report and study concerning Switzerland, refers to these recommendations to demand changes or adaptations of laws or practices if gaps or shortcomings are found in the implementation of children’s rights in Switzerland.

Moreover, the Alliance carries out advocacy and lobbying work alongside federal parliamentarians and federal and cantonal authorities, aiming to inform and raise awareness on the rights of children and young people while providing the expertise they need in assessing the challenges.

This work is part of opinion-forming and influences processes and decisions at the legislative, executive and political levels.

As a complement to this work of dialogue and negotiation, the Alliance’s public position papers and positions aim to stimulate public debate and lead to proposals for solutions, by bringing the voices of children and young people, who are the actors of change, to accompany the processes of improvement.

Lobbying is also the promotion and defence of rights (CRC and other human rights instruments) that the Alliance integrates in the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our advocacy promotes projects and programmes on education about children’s rights and sustainable lifestyles that respect the environment and human habitat, carried out in the cantons and internationally at the national level.

The implementation of children’s and SDGs’ rights has thus been integrated in the NGOs’ report to the UN Committee, in lobbying work in Parliament and with the authorities, and in the Alliance’s contributions to various networks, platforms and umbrella organisations within its partnerships in Switzerland.

Citizen and solidarity education, sustainable development and human rights education, as well as the participation of children and young people in public life, including the empowerment of migrants – here in Switzerland and elsewhere in the world – now represent the Alliance’s specific expertise in the sharing and dissemination of knowledge in Switzerland.

Furthermore, the Alliance has joined several Swiss initiatives calling against discrimination and for gender equity; against the spiral of violence caused by easy access to arms in fragile or in conflict countries; for the responsibility of multinationals in terms of human rights and the environment.