Monitoring Youth and Child Rights

Humanity in Action Senior Fellow Walid Malik is currently working full-time as a Researcher and Policy Adviser in the field of children and youth rights monitoring at the The German Institute for Human Rights (GIHR). He has been coordinating Kinderrechte Monitoring Hessen, the first children and youth rights monitoring system in the state of Hesse in Germany. 

In the 20th legislative period in Hesse the coalition government brought attention to the state of children and youth rights. In July 2021 Hesse became the first federal state in Germany to commission the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) monitoring body of the German Institute for Human Rights to develop and implement a children and youth rights monitoring system. 

The UNCRC is the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history. Its aim is to ensure that children grow up in the spirit of peace, dignity, tolerance, freedom, equality and solidarity. The goal of GIHR’s new initiative is to monitor whether all requirements of the 54 articles of the convention are being implemented across federal and state governments. Kinderrechte Monitoring Hessen has begun this work by analyzing how well known the UNCRC is in Hesse, especially among children and young people. Walid Malik’s work focuses on strengthening the implementation of children’s and young people’s rights through the promotion of rights, participation of children, and educational equity. Learn more about Walid’s work with Kinderrechte Monitoring Hessen here.