About UCRN

Ukrainian Child Rights Network

was established for the purpose of consolidation of efforts and achievement of better coordination between civil society organizations in Ukraine and their influence on the state child care policy.

We are uniting

in order to hear and understand the problems and challenges at the national, regional, local levels and to influence on their decisions.

We strive for

a happy, healthy, safe, family environment for every child, when its personality and the rights are respected.

Our mission

is to promote the best interests of the child during state policy formation by means of advocacy, lobbying reforms of social services, decentralization, and development of the national monitoring system, representation in government of our interests and of the interests of children and their families.

In his activity

The Ukrainian Network is governed by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the main task of the organization is to achieve the fulfillment of all the provisions and rights specified in this document in Ukraine.

Today among our members are 28 powerful Ukrainian and international organizations and charity funds that work across Ukraine to ensure the rights and welfare of the child.

VISION

Ensuring the right of every child to grow up in a tender environment

MISSION

To be a driving-force of system changes in order to ensure the rights and the best interests for every child in Ukraine

GOALS

To ensure the realization of children’s rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

HISTORY

Child Rights Network

is a representative, expert and coordination body, formed by a group of NGOs during 2014 in order to strengthen child rights protection in Ukraine. The organization was created to consolidate efforts, and to improve coordination within civil society in Ukraine and its influence on public policy in the field of child rights.

The relevance

of NGOs association was defined by the events of winter 2013-2014, which led to change of power in Ukraine and gave new hope to the society on civilized pro-European development of the country. And at the same time, further situation in Ukraine increased challenges in the sphere of child rights protection.

The purposes

of the Network establishment are to ensure child rights realization in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to introduce international and European standards by enhancing the impact of civil society on development, implementation and monitoring of the state policy in the sphere of child rights and social services for families with children in Ukraine.

History of establishment

17 December

17-18 December at the Centre for Child Protection “Our Kids” took place an International Conference on “The Role and Impact of Civil Society Organisations and Networks in Child Protection – European and Ukrainian Perspectives”. The event brought together more than one hundred representatives of civil society organizations working on behalf of children and support families from all over Ukraine and Europe. Thus the conference became a platform for exchange of practices in the realization of social policy between European and Ukrainian NGOs.

During the two-day conference was presented the experience of the National Network for Children in Bulgaria, the German League of Child Protection, Child Pact. 16 national and 9 international experts gave a speech.

During the event for the first time the Ukrainian Child Rights Network was presented to the public and the authorities.

4 December

From 4 to 12 December, were held 6 roundtables in Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Odesa, Lviv and Vinnytsia on “Status of Child Rights Implementation in Ukraine: Place and Role of NGOs”. These events were held in order to discuss the status and challenges for child rights protection at the national and regional levels, as well as to present the Ukrainian Child Rights Network, its goals, objectives and priorities. Thus during the round tables it was identified the issues and problems, which are challenging NGOs in regions, and the contribution NGOs can make by joining the Network.

6 November

At the beginnig of November, the Network Secretariat stated to work, which included Executive Director – Tetiana Nosach, and PR-manager – Margaryta Dolgaia.

Demo version of the UCRN web-site was was launched.

2 November

From 2 to 8 November, representatives of founding members of the Network made a study tour to Germany, where thay had an ability to find out more about the work of the German League of Child Protection and its internal processes, and to establish cooperation between organizations.

At this time, together with experts from the German League of Child Protection, lawyers and external partners started the development of legal documents for the Network. Parallel work was conducted to collect data base of NGOs.

15 October

Founding members received grant for the establishment and development of the Network from the German Federal Foreign Office.

30 September

During the meeting member organizations adopted the final name of the network – “Ukrainian Child Rights Network” (UCRN). It was decided to form database of non-governmental organizations in Ukraine working with children and youth. This database will be used to start a dialogue with many other organizations in Ukraine on the formation of Ukrainian Child Rights Network, to improve teamwork and communication between organizations with similar goals and activities.

2 June

The Ukrainian and international organizations and charity funds signed Memorandum of understanding on the establishment of a Ukrainian Child Rights Network. This document states main objectives and principles of the organization. Signatories were 7 organizations later joined by 2, so 9 organizations became founders of the Network, including: Child Well-being Fund Ukraine, The Ukrainian Foundation for Public Health, Rinat Akhmetov’s Foundation, German-Polish-Ukrainian Society in Ukraine, Hope and Homes for Children in Ukraine, Charitable Foundation «SOS Children Village», Magnolia, League of Social Workers of Ukraine, Partnership for Every Child in Ukraine.

10 March

In the office of the “SOS Children’s Villages” Ukraine was held a round table on “Prospects for advocacy and reform in social sphere” aimed at assessment of the situation in Ukrainian society and in particular in the field of social work.

During the discussion the participants agreed on a poor state of strategic planning of social policy, and on the need to create the body, which would unite representatives of NGOs working in the field of children’s rights. It was agreed that such a body should:

include a wide range of experts, organizations, professional and client communities;
act independently from public authorities;
regularly monitor the sphere of children and families protection;
act as an expert group in the development, adoption and implementation of legislative initiatives in the social sphere;
coordinate efforts to implement reforms and strategies via public councils and lobby groups.

Common position was agreed on follow-up activities of public authorities working in the sphere of child rights protection, and paid attention to the opinion on interaction with public authorities with public councils. In particular, on participation in the development of regulations, the need for efficiency of the public assessment of such documents.

After the meeting a working group dealing with the creation of a national expert and representative coordinating body, its secretariat, powers, structure and leadership was formed, named “National Council of NGOs working in the sphere of child rights and family support”.

More than a dozen NGO representatives from the social sphere were involved in the process of the UCRN establishment in 2014. Several lobbying activities (press conferences, letters of appeal to the authorities, etc.) were performed.

GOVERNING BODY