North American Meeting for the World Congress on Justice with Children
As a significant milestone in our ongoing commitment to the SDG16: Accelerating Progress to Achieve Justice for Children program, this advisory meeting has been organised in collaboration with the Terre des hommes Lausanne Foundation, the Institute for Inspiring Children's Futures at Strathclyde University, and Baker McKenzie Global Pro Bono Practice, with UN SRSG on Violence against Children, UNICEF, UNODC, and OECD - OCDE.
During the meeting, it was officially announced that the next World Congress on Justice with Children is scheduled to take place in Madrid in the spring of 2025.
Supported by the Governments of Belgium, Canada and Mexico, the event opened with remarks from the Canadian and Mexican Ambassadors, and was co-moderated by a member of the Justice for Children child delegation. The meeting served as a crucial platform to build momentum towards the 2024 High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, where SDG 16 on Peace, Justice, and Inclusion will be a central focus of governments’ Voluntary National Review (VNR) reporting.
During the high-level roundtable on "SDG 16: Accelerating Progress to Achieve Justice for Children, the ‘Digital Justice’, ‘Building New Partnerships’ & ‘Smarter Financing’ policy briefs were officially presented. These policy briefs form part of a series based on the Strategic Levers to achieve justice.
The second-round table of the event was dedicated to examining the American reality through the lens of these Strategic Levers, as outlined in the ‘Agenda for Action’ of the SDG16 Justice for Children Working Group of the Justice Action Coalition, with the participation of The Gault Center, The Legal Aid Society, Children's rights
Through the successful collaboration with representatives from UNSRSG, UNODC, UNICEF, UNDP, OECD, Permanent Representations to the UN, US decision makers, and various stakeholders, the North American Meeting fostered a fruitful exchange of ideas and facilitated collaboration towards driving tangible progress in securing child-centred justice for children in North America and across the globe.
With an international call to join a growing group of governments prioritising children in justice reform, we are pleased to announce that discussions are already underway for a follow-up event in New York in July 2024, as we play our role as a key partner driving progress towards justice for children.
