Guides
Guides for survivors of child sexual abuse in religious institutions in Latin America
Supporting abuse survivors to end impunity for institutional sexual violence against children
The first guide is a practical resource to help survivors come together, mobilise and build a survivor-led network. It includes key questions to consider before creating a network and guidance on planning its structure, centring survivor-participation and safety while also explaining how to manage potential conflicts. Finally, it explores how survivors can use communications to advance their goals and mission, while drawing on experiences from other networks in the region.
The second guide provides information on how survivors can pursue ‘truth, justice and reparations’, as well as advance legal reforms in response to sexual abuse in institutional settings. This guide brings together experiences from national inquiries - including truth commissions - and legal reform processes in 30 countries.
The third guide reviews the legal avenues for establishing a national inquiry in Argentina and refers to more practical ways to advocate for its
establishment. In doing this, it looks at examples of good practice from Argentina and abroad.
Find the guides at the following links:
· Guía sobre cómo establecer una red de sobrevivientes de abuso sexual infantil (Spanish)
· Guía sobre cómo alcanzar Verdad, Justicia, Reparaciones y Reformas legales frente a abusos sexuales infantiles en contextos institucionales (Spanish)
· Establecimiento de una comisión de la verdad sobre el abuso sexual de niñas, niños y adolescentes en las instituciones de Argentina (Spanish) / Establishing a truth commission into institutional child sexual abuse in Argentina (English)
Children’s rights guides
Guide to the CRC's General Comment on business and children's right
CRIN, in partnership with the International Commission of Jurists, has put together a practical guide on how to use the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child’s 16th General Comment, which focuses on State obligations regarding the impact of the business sector on children’s rights, to make the recommendations and guidance provided in General Comment 16 a reality. The guide also provides examples of how NGOs have intervened on behalf of children, as well as advice on litigation, monitoring, advocacy and activism on behalf of children.
Find the guide here.
Legal guides
Using the law for children's rights: An introductory guide
This introductory guide offers a brief overview of avenues for legal advocacy. It also offers guidance on how to explore your options, and how to promote legal advocacy work with other children’s rights advocates.
Find the guide here.
Strategic litigation toolkit
This guide has been produced to help those working towards the advancement of children's rights to understand what strategic litigation is, and to consider using the law in the courtroom as an option for effective advocacy. The guide is aimed at legal and non-legal non-governmental organisation (NGO) staff and can be adapted to local settings and procedures.
Find the guide here.
Child-Friendly Justice Toolkit
This guide aims to provide information about the obligation to follow child-friendly justice principles; international, regional, and national standards for doing so; court decisions, studies, research surveys, and position papers on the subject; and other relevant resources. Scroll down to access these resources.
Find the guide here.
Legal Advocacy Workshop Toolkit
This note is a starting point for sharing our experiences and resources from running these workshops with others thinking about organising their own legal advocacy workshops. Our plan is to produce a global legal advocacy guide along with a toolkit in the future to further support others in running similar workshops without our direct involvement.
Find the guide here.
Legal Assistance Toolkit
This guide provides children and NGOs with advice on how to get assistance from a legal professional, and includes information on how to get legal advice free of charge.
Find the guide here.
CRC complaints mechanism toolkit
This toolkit explains the international complaints mechanism for violations of the Convention on the Rights of the Child so you can help children bring violations of their rights to international attention.
Find the guide here.
Human Rights System guides
Complaints mechanisms
Legal complaints about rights violations are a form of legal advocacy. This section of our website details the different types of legal complaints available for children’s rights violations at the international, regional and national levels.
Find the guide here.
Introducing UN Rights Mechanisms
In this section you'll find introductions to each of the core UN rights mechanisms, including what they do, how they operate and how they can be used to advocate for human rights.
Find the guide here.
Regional Mechanisms
Regional human rights systems were developed to reflect regional values and offer a more specific framework than the UN system. Such a framework can resonate more strongly with local realities and allow for different approaches to enforcing standards. We are adding to this guide as we develop our regional children’s rights monitoring and research work, so please email us with any feedback or further information on regional mechanisms.
Find the guide here.
National Mechanisms
States which violate or fail to protect children’s rights can often be held to account at a national level.
Find the guide here.
For older news, please see CRIN’s archive website