The government has proposed major changes in the constitutional distribution of competencies between the federal government and the Länder (see Draft Constitutional Law), including in the area of child protection services.
On 18th and 19th of April 2018 Helmut Sax (Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights) will be one of the keynote speakers and panelists at the International Symposium – Childhood, Youth and Society IX at the Festspielhaus Bregenz. He will be holding a keynote on the implementation of the UN Convention for the Rights of the Child from the perspective of young people and will join a panel discussion on "Why have childrens' rights? Visions and expectations from three countries"
The United Nations General Assembly by Resolution 69/157 of 18 December 2014 requested the former Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, to commission an in-depth global study on children deprived of liberty. In October 2016, Manfred Nowak (Austria) has been appointed as Independent Expert leading the United Nations Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty.
In autumn 2016, Manfred Nowak, co-director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights, was appointed as Independent Expert to lead the Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty.
In his speech at the UN General Assembly, on 10 October 2017, Manfred Nowak reiterated the importance of the Global Study in generating long-term change to improve the lives of children and ultimately reduce the number of children deprived of liberty. One core objective of the Global Study is to provide recommendations in order to better safeguard children´s rights and work in the best interest of the child. Thus, he called upon all UN member states to support and fund the Global Study to make sure that no child remains invisible.
At 03. und 04. of April already the 17th OSCE Alliance against Trafficking in Persons Conference takes place in Vienna. During panel 2 on 04.04. Helmut Sax will discuss Protection of children and best practise. Also he will present the annual GRETA-Report focusing trafficking of children.
For further information of this event see this link: http://www.osce.org/event/alliance17
In this project, which is led by the Belgian organisation International Juvenile Justice Observatory, the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights (BIM) acts as a national partner. Within the framework of this EU (DG justice) financed project, programs and measures for deradicalisation of juveniles within the juvenile justice sector - including programs for rehabilitation and resocialisation - are identified and analysed. The focus is on measures to support juveniles who came in conflict with the law.
The Ludwig Boltzmann Institute contributed to the International Mayors' Conference in Vienna on 30-31 January 2017. The motto of the conference was "Children under the Radar". Helmut Sax from the BIM was one of the participants of a panel on children's rights addressing the phenomena of child marriage and the way European countries are dealing with it, as an example for “parallel structures”.
At the third International Mayors' Conference NOW international participants - from Libanon, Jordan, Greece, Turkey, Germany and many further countries - will discuss the topic of displaced children for two days to identify central challenges and promising solutions.
The event is not open to the public. The conference results will be published in the following in a final report.
The BIM will be represented by Patricia Hladschik and Helmut Sax.
On 20 November 1989, the United Nations adopted the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). 27 years later, the respect for and fulfillment of children´s rights are by no means self-evident. Violations of children’s rights do also occur in Austria. As long as children are victims of violence, as they do not share equal opportunities in the educational system and the rights of children who are refugees differ from the standards for „Austrian“ children, there is still a substantial need for action.
At the 7 and 8 of December 2016, experts from the Member States of the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) will meet in Stockholm for a conference on child trafficking and talk about „Promoting the Human Rights and Best interests of Children in Transnational Child Protection Cases".
Helmut Sax is a member of the Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA) of the Council of Europe and will talk about the „Progress in developing an effective policy and practice against exploitation and trafficking of children".