Child-led initiatives Europe

Regional Trends: Europe

In Europe, child-led actions are mostly around children engaging with other peers, children reaching out to other children to collect information and their experiences of the pandemic, peer-to-peer support around mental health to cope with the lockdown, child-led advocacy aimed at  decision makers, and digital safety and well-being. There’s also a wider use of technology to support children’s meaningful participation.

Specifically regarding violence, actions are addressing online violence (how to prevent child sexual exploitation and abuse [CSEA] and other forms of online violence, like hate speech and cyberbullying), child trafficking, domestic violence, and violence faced by specific groups like children deprived of liberty, children under attack, refugees and migrants, and LGBTIQ+ groups.

In Ukraine , “marking the first Day to Protect Education from Attack children were able to exchange their ideas on safe and quality education with government officials. The round table turned into an open platform where boys and girls had their say, asked questions on the implementation of the Safe Schools Declaration, and received insights from the Ministry of Education on the current work and future plans”.

In this region, child-led advocacy has specifically stood out through online interactions with decision makers. In Kosovo , children have taken part in debates with authorities, and drafting advocacy messages. Also, other countries have specifically created instances for children to put their questions forward regarding COVID-19 and government response.

Children are actively addressing the challenges posed by online education, including spending longer periods of time online.