The Bureau took part in the 7th edition of the Summer School on Migration, participating in a round table on child participation. A training programme organised annually by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Tunisia, this year’s Summer School was held from 19 to 23 September 2022 and focused on the theme of “Children and Migration”.
Focusing on the empowerment, responsibility and involvement of migrant children in decision making and care, the roundtable was an opportunity for the Bureau to highlight the importance of strengthening child protection by including their active participation. The structures that receive and accompany migrant children must be able to rely on adequate tools and skills to take into account the particular context of each of them. A child must feel legitimate and sufficiently listened to in order to be able to express himself/herself freely and make his/her voice heard, and thus become an actor in the construction of his/her future. This also applies to children in migration situations.
Driven by various political, economic and climatic crises, many people are forced to leave their countries, and more and more of them are children. According to UNICEF, 36.5 million children will be displaced by the end of 2021, a record figure1. Due to its geographical position, Tunisia is particularly affected by population migration. Since its creation, the Summer School on Migration has trained around 400 people, mostly public officials.
Beyond its participation in this summer school, the IBCR is working in Tunisia to strengthen the overall protection and respect of children’s rights, whether or not they are in a migration situation, through its PRIDE voluntary cooperation programme and bilateral projects.
Read more about the Bureau’s latest project in Tunisia
As child migration is becoming more and more present in Tunisia, the IBCR – in the framework of its international volunteer programme PRIDE – partnered with the IOM in May 2022, to organise training workshops to better inform and equip Tunisian civil society on the challenges related to the reception and support of unaccompanied children. These three workshops were facilitated by François Crépeau, Professor at McGill University in Montreal and former UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, who joined the PRIDE programme for a two-week mandate in Tunisia.
Read more about the training to better understand child migration in Tunisia
¹ UNICEF’s source : https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/nearly-37-million-children-displaced-worldwide-highest-number-ever-recorded