Launch of a Child-friendly UPR Guide!
UPR Info and Child Rights Connect are delighted to announce the launch of “The UPR & Me: My Guide to Participating in the UPR”!
“The UPR Child-friendly guide aims at empowering you to use the Universal Periodic Review to speak up and stand up for your rights and the ones of others” reported Mona M’Bikay, Executive Director of UPR Info.
The guide is available in English, French and Spanish.
Whilst there are many good practice examples of children’s participation in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), the levels of engagement globally remain low and there is very little child-friendly, accessible information to ensure children can learn about and take part in the process. Child participation in the UPR is also almost entirely adult-led.
UPR Info and Child Rights Connect have developed a child-friendly guide to the UPR to help raise awareness and understanding of the mechanism among children and to empower them to engage throughout the cycle. As highlighted by Leo, child representative from Albania: "The UPR is not an event, it is a process that can be used by children to change their lives".
"We, as children, are always the ones being evaluated. But at the UPR, children can also be the ones evaluating their country's performance in ensuring human rights. We have the tools to voice our concerns and evaluate our country", added Elias, child representative from Venezuela.
The Guide has been informed by a children’s consultation with over 140 children globally who took part in an online survey and small focus groups. Their inputs helped to shape the design and content of the Guide and child representatives from Bangladesh and Venezuela who took part in the consultation also presented during the launch of the Guide. 
The launch event took place today, on Friday 11th December, as an opportunity for different stakeholders to come together to talk about why the Guide is important for children’s participation at UN level, and how it can be used to advance children’s engagement in the UPR so that they are able to act on the human rights issues most important to them. “With all your joyful power, ambition, and creativity you can recover the past by being the present and a bright future where people live a life with dignity, free from fears and wants,” Mona M’Bikay added during the virtual launch event.
Access the Guide in English, French and Spanish.
For further information, please contact Emma from Child Rights Connect at grindulis@childrightsconnect.org or Laura Sinner from UPR Info at l.sinner@upr-info.org