Working Group for Cooperation on

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Working Group for Cooperation on Children at
Risk 2007 - 2008 Chairperson Adviser Anniki
Tikerpuu, Ministry of Social Affairs,
Estonia Head of Childrens Unit Lars Lööf Council
of the Baltic Sea States Secretariat (CBSS)
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Working Group for Cooperation on Children at Risk

• Priorities
• Sexual exploitation in all its forms
• Unaccompanied and trafficked children
• Children living in the street
• The Rights of Children in institutions
• Young offenders and self destructive behaviour in
  children

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Activities during the year pointing to the
future

• The Rights of Children in Institutions
• Expert meeting on monitoring systems and child
  participation, September 2006
• Conference The Rights of Children in
  Institutions in the Region of the Baltic Sea
  States - Improving Child Participation,
  Monitoring and Post Placement Assistance,
  November 2006
• Programme adopted by the WGCC includes
• Developing training for staff working with
  monitoring in order for the monitoring of
  childrens rights in institutions to include the
  Council of Europe Rec (2005)5
• Implement a pilot training on monitoring skills
• Mapping of resources assisting young persons
  leaving institutions in order to facilitate a
  better coordination of efforts and of learning
• Cooperation with the Council of Europe and the
  Nordic Cooperation on Disability, NSH, under the
  NCM.

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Activities during the year pointing to the
future

• Baltic Sea Regional Study on Adolescent Sexuality
• Regional report from the study launched in Oslo
  on the 27th of September by Minister for Children
  and Equality, Ms Karita Bekkemellen
• Study calls for urgent actions relating to the
  level of sexual harassments experienced by teen
  age girls
• Urgent action needed responding to the high level
  of reported incidences of sexual abuse
• High proportion of boys are abused
• Only a small minority of children sell sex. Those
  that do have a bad health situation and suffer
  more adverse life circumstances than do other
  children.
• EU Policy on the rights of the child. CoE
  Convention on the Protection of children against
  sexual exploitation and sexual abuse
• Children abused in the context of the Internet
• Follow up to expert meeting organised in May 2006
• Report from the expert meeting published in
  cooperation with Swedish Childrens Welfare
  Foundation (Allmänna Barnhuset)
• A web based template gathering data world wide on
  how children are affected by abuse in the context
  of the Internet, developed by the World Childhood
  Foundation, WCF, in coop with the WGCC.
  International meeting planned to promote the form
• Organise an international follow up meeting in
  cooperation with the Swedish Childrens Welfare
  Foundation
• EU Safer Internet Programme and the WGCC in
  cooperation with the Russian Ministry of
  Education to look at the possibility of
  organising a conference in Moscow on the topic of
  Children Abused in Internet Settings
• EU Policy on the rights of the child, EU Safer
  Internet Programme

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Activities during the year pointing to the
future

• WGCC programme on Unaccompanied and Trafficked
  Children
• BSR CACVT
• Training programme implemented with more than 50
  experts participating from 10 countries in the
  region
• Contact details of experts that are trained are
  shared with the National Contact Points, National
  Coordinators and with the TFOC Expert Group on
  Human Trafficking
• Evaluation and experiences of the training will
  be assessed jointly by the WGCC and the CBSS
  TFTHB on the 24th of October, in order for the
  two groups jointly consider lessons learned and
  gaps to address.
• Mapping project ongoing looking at how children
  in the region that are trafficked are assisted
  including interviews with child victims
• Mapping is ongoing and result to be published in
  early 2008.
• Assessing the mapping in cooperation with the
  CBSS TFTHB at the joint meeting on October 24th.
• National Contact Points, NCP
• Operational in all countries except Germany and
  Russia
• 4th Meeting of National Contact Points organised
  in Warsaw in cooperation with the Polish Ministry
  for the Interior and Administration in May 2007.
• Outcome of the meeting to be considered by the
  WGCC in the updated Plan of Action on
  Unaccompanied and Trafficked Children
• Disseminating more broadly the NCPs as nodes of
  information and contact on a national and
  regional level
• More discussions and guidelines on when a child
  can/should be returned to country of origin
• Need to identify children victims of exploitation
  in criminality
• Roundtable meeting looking at how to regionally
  follow up on the UN Study on Violence Against
  Children especially as it relates to violence in
  the context of trafficking
• Meeting to be organised with relevant regional
  stakeholders
• EU Policy on the rights of the child, CoE
  Convention Against the Trafficking in Human
  Beings

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Activities during the year pointing to the
future

• Young offenders and self destructive behaviour in
  children
• Expert meeting Assistance to Children at Risk
  of Committing Crimes and Reintegration of
  Children with a Criminal Life Style organised in
  St Petersburg on the 12th to 14th of November by
  the WGCC and the Russian Ministry of Education
  and Science.

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Activities during the year pointing to the
future

• Associated Expert Group to the Northern Dimension
  Partnership on Health and Social Wellbeing
• Increased cooperation on programming and
  analysing level with the partners to the
  partnership that are not members to the CBSS
• Discussing ways to expand the cooperation with
  non-CBSS partners.
• Inviting the partnership to link to the WGCC work
  where adequate
• Plans of activity and plans of actions published
  on the NDPHS website
• Sharing networks and avoiding all duplication
• Other areas of cooperation such as the Riga
  conference Reducing Alcohol Problems in the
  Baltic Sea Region where the WGCC chaired the
  workshop on harm caused to children.

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Methods used

• Expert meetings
• Defining common areas of concern
• Identifying gaps
• Outlining areas for action
• Expert input to the WGCC
• Conferences
• Political support
• State commitments and joint funding
• Unique networking
• Web site
• Regional information on children at risk
• Networking possibilities online
• Calendar

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Expert meetings 05- 08

• Expert meeting on Care, protection,
  rehabilitation and reintegration for
  unaccompanied and trafficked children (Kiev April
  05)
• Expert meeting on supporting boys and girls
  leaving institutions (Yaroslavl September 05)
• Expert meeting on Child friendly forensic
  investigations (Reykjavik May 06)
• Expert meeting on support to children abused in
  Internet settings (Sätra Bruk, Sweden, May 06)
• Expert meeting on monitoring the rights of
  children in institutions. (Oslo September 06)
• Expert meeting on Children committing crimes and
  with a self destructive behaviour. (St
  Petersburg, November 2007)
• Expert meeting giving input to the monitoring
  training. (Tallinn, January 2008)

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Important partners

• NGO cooperation
• ECPAT Europe Developing training manual for law
  enforcement and social workers on children and
  trafficking and adapting the manual to national
  needs
• Save the Children Alliance Unaccompanied
  children, children without documentation
• Separated Children in Europe Programme
• Nordic Council of Ministers
• Trafficking coordination transparency new NCM
  project on prevention of trafficking presented at
  4th NCP meeting in Warsaw May 8th.- 9th.
• Nordic Cooperation on Disability Using the two
  programmes to complement and using each others
  resources
• The Council of Europe
• Rec (2005)5 on the Rights of Children in
  Institutions
• Europe wide work on follow up of World
  conferences on sexual exploitation
• Promoting the CoE Convention Against Trafficking
  in Human Beings
• EU
• Violence against children on the Internet
• Coordination of the fight against trafficking
• European Forum for the Rights of the Child (1st
  forum in Berlin on the 4th of June)
• Foundations and partners
• Oak Foundation
• World Childhood Foundation
• Save the Children

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There is always something to learn -

• - and always something to teach

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Working Group for Cooperation on Children at
Risk 2007 - 2008 Chairperson Adviser Anniki
Tikerpuu, Ministry of Social Affairs,
Estonia Head of Childrens Unit Lars Lööf Council
of the Baltic Sea States Secretariat (CBSS)