UN rolls out initiative to make children visible, heard in decision making

The Vice Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Philip Jaffe`, has said the global body has found the need to engage children in discussions on matters affecting them. 

Jaffe` was speaking on Tuesday during the inaugural Africa Children Summit held in Nairobi.  

"The goal is to have children be visible, to know what their concerns are and receive messages on which areas we have to give priority. The whole idea is to bring children on board to participate in decision-making on issues affecting them," Jaffe` said. 

Jaffe` said in the ideal scenario, the children would go to Geneva and partake in the committee discussions affecting them. 

But because that is not possible, the UN visits children in their countries to hear from them.

" The reality is most of these decision-making committees and bodies are run by adults but we need child participation to take into account their concerns, priorities, requests and ideas. We are here to absorb all the good ideas from children on a whole range of topics," he said. 

He said he will be attending his Committee's session which comes at the beginning of May. 

The committee holds three meetings annually. 

Jaffe` said it is at the committee that the officials report their findings from the countries they visited. 

" Our main job is to examine how countries are dealing with children's rights each country one by one," he said. 

During committee meetings, a country or two may be invited and this is where they are told what the children of their country would like to be done differently. 

Jaffe` said from the findings, they give recommendations to countries on areas to improve in regard to the welfare of the children. 

" We hold their feet to the fire," he said. 

Jaffe` is a psychologist as well as the founder of the Children's Rights Centre at the University of Geneva.