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In commemoration of Universal Children’s Day, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR Court), the PANIAMOR Foundation and Save the Children, through the Regional Program to Support Civil Society (PASC), facilitated the IV Dialogue between children and adolescents with the IACHR Court.
This is the fourth consecutive year that the judges of the IACHR Court have exchanged with children and adolescents on various issues that interest and/or affect them. “For the Court it is fundamental to maintain the link with children and adolescents. This event, which we started in 2019, in the framework of the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, we are going to keep it and we are also advancing in a protocol for the involvement of children and adolescents in the cases that the Court deals with, it is important to listen to them,” mentioned Judge Ricardo C. Pérez Manrique, President of the IACHR Court.
The input that energized the exchange was the document “The right of children and adolescents to DEFEND RIGHTS”, the result of a consultation with 25 girls and boys from nine countries, representatives of the networks REDNNyAS, MOLACNATS, REDIME and Yo También Tengo Algo que Decir (I Also Have Something to Say). They presented their opinions and concerns about the closing of the civic space in the region and emphasized the importance of defending rights, which is not exclusive to adults, schooled or academic experts in law. They also commented on the role of States in guaranteeing, respecting and protecting the freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association of individuals, including themselves.
“We are not allowed to protest against injustice, we are intimidated and mocked, we are told we should study and not do activism. States don’t like to be told that they are destroying our forests and nature. They also do very little for the rights of us girls and women,” commented one of the adolescent participants in the regional consultation.
Likewise, Ann Linnarsson, Director of Save the Children’s Regional Civil Society Support Program (PASC), highlighted the importance of defending civic space in Latin America “Protecting civic space guarantees the role of civil society for social auditing and contributes to strengthening democracy in the countries. Children and adolescents are citizens and key actors of civil society and their voices must always be taken into account”.
Ricardo C. Pérez Manrique, President of the IACHR Court, and Judge Verónica Gómez, agreed with several of the concerns expressed by the children and adolescents about the situations experienced by human rights defenders. “The children show that defenders suffer reprisals, intimidation and violence when carrying out their work. This shows us that they understand better than anyone else what challenges they face in civic space.”
“The IACHR Court and all international human rights protection bodies try to protect the work of those who exercise the right to protect rights, human rights defenders, especially in our continent where statistically they are very threatened,” said Judge Veronica Gomez.
Milena Grillo, Director of Strategy and Innovation of the PANIAMOR Foundation, emphasized that “the vision of this process, since it began four years ago, has been to add allies, to make this equation more powerful. Soledad García Muñoz, Special Rapporteur on Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights; Luis Pedernera, Member of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child; and Víctor Giorgi, Director General of the Inter-American Children’s Institute of the Organization of American States, also participated. From their roles and mandates, they addressed the exercise of the right to defend rights and their relationship with civic space and the ethical, safe and meaningful participation of children and adolescents.
