Governance fit for children?
                                                     How far has the UNCRC general measures of implementation been realised in Europe?

Save the Children has received financial support from the European Union’s Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Programme to carry out a research project to assess how far the ‘general measures of implementation’ of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) have been realised at European, national and community level. The general measures form the first ‘cluster’ of articles of the UNCRC (articles 4, 41, and 44.6) and concern the structures and mechanisms which need to be in place if the whole of UNCRC is to be implemented effectively.  The project will focus on five European countries: Italy, Lithuania, Romania, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The research will be carried out over a period of 18 months, starting 1 February 2010, by the respective Save the Children organisations in the five countries concerned. The project is coordinated by Save the Children Sweden.  It will be based on desk research of relevant policy documents and on interviews with policy makers and representatives of non-governmental organisations. The research will be carried out at national level and in four regions of the country, where interviews with children will also take place. The findings will be presented in a national report.

A European-wide comparative report will also be published and will include research focusing on the EU institutions. It will identify best practice examples as well as recommendations for future action aimed at policy makers at community, national and EU level.

The findings of both the national and European reports will be disseminated through seminars at national and community level in each country. A regional conference, with participants from the EU institutions, the participating countries and other stakeholders will be held towards the end of the project period.