United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child Conference and celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the Adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 8 – 9 October 2009 in Geneva, Switzerland.

On 20 November 2009, the international community will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) by the United Nations General Assembly.

To mark this anniversary, the UN Committee of the Rights of the Child and the Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) and other partners will organize a two-day celebration and conference. 

The celebration will focus on the theme “Dignity, Development and Dialogue,” and will provide an important opportunity to bring together States parties, United Nations bodies and other intergovernmental organizations, national human rights institutions,  international and national non-governmental organizations, children’s and youth groups, academics  and all others interested in the CRC.  

The conference and celebration will take place in Geneva, Switzerland and IFCO's President, Chris Gardiner, will be representing the organisation.

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IFCO European Regional Training Seminar
4-7 July 2010
University of Sussex,
Brighton, England

The next International Foster Care Organisation (IFCO) European
Regional Training Seminar will bring together young people, foster
carers and people from organisations that are committed to the role of foster care
in transforming the lives of children and young people.
With a focus on hearing and learning from young people and foster
carers, a range of plenary sessions, workshops and networking
opportunities will enable participants to share knowledge, research, experiences and progress from across Europe and the World.
This is a European Regional Training Seminar but people from outside Europe are welcome as both delegates and presenters.

UPDATED WEB SITE / MORE INFO > http://brighton2010.ifco.info/

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BEST WISHES FROM IFCO TO EVERYBODY  ATTENDING THE CONFERENCE "Promoting Family-Based Care for Children in Africa" from 28-30 September 2009 in Nairobi, Kenya. 

The African Network for the Prevention and Protection Against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN) has organized the First International Conference in Africa on Family Based Care for Children.  

IFCO Board member Stephen Ucembe from Kenya has been involved in the planning of this event and he and fellow IFCO Board member Chris Rayment will be there.       http://www.anppcan.org/node/45

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The latest monthly members-only IFCO Enewsletter was sent on 24 September - includes a slideshow with 359 pictures from the Dublin Conference > see http://www.ifca.ie/events/past_events/ifco_conf/ + lots more news & information  

Contributions for the October edition of the IFCO Enews by the 14th please.

>>>>JOIN IFCO TODAY!  Click > http://www.ifco.info/?q=join_us_today<<<<

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Newly published - important annual report showing what has happened to children since 1989 >> Innocenti Social Monitor 2009 - "Child Well-Being at a Crossroads: Evolving challenges in Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States"   http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/ism_2009.pdf ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Announcing the 1st Edition of the IFCO Youth E-newsletter!!   This edition is
particularly focused on the IFCO2009 International Conference held in Ireland
in July. CLICK >  http://ifcoyouthenews.webs.com 

Please feel free to join our membership and keep updated on Youth activities,
information and events worldwide. If you would like to add something to the IFCO Youth Enews pages, please email us. 

Please forward this link and email to anyone you think would like to see it! 

Jean Kennedy - IFCO Board Member and IFCO Youth Committee Chairperson

Irish Foster Care Association Board member representing 'Youth Who Care'

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NEWS UPDATE SEPTEMBER 15 > click:  UKRAINIAN MINISTER SAYS ELTON JOHN WILL BE REFUSED PERMISSION TO ADOPT 

EveryChild, the international children's charity, is concerned to learn that Elton John is planning to adopt a child from an orphanage in Ukraine. Whilst Elton John should be applauded for helping to raise awareness of the plight of children affected by HIV in Ukraine, the answer to Ukraine's deepening HIV and Aids crisis does not lie in international adoption. More children may be abandoned in children's homes as a result of another high-profile, celebrity adoption.

95% of the children in Ukraine’s institutions are not orphans. Children born to HIV+ mothers face particular discrimination. They are separated from their mothers and often end up in children’s homes and institutions segregated from children not affected by HIV. More emphasis needs to be placed on encouraging the Ukrainian government to help keep families together rather than placing children affected by HIV in outdated children's homes.   PLEASE CLICK THE HEADLINE ABOVE FOR MORE OF THIS STORY & A RADIO INTERVIEW

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 http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00mg8wb/The_Last_Chance_Court/

Jenny Cuffe reports on the UK's first family, drug and alcohol court, a groundbreaking experiment designed to keep children of addicts from going into care.

Parents sign up for an intensive course of counselling and rehabilitation, agreeing to frequent drug tests and reporting regularly to the court. Those who fail will go back to a conventional court, where there is a strong chance that the children will be taken away from them.

Halfway through a three-year trial period for the court, the programme hears from families, their lawyers, judges and the specialist team of counsellors.

Jenny meets mothers like Catherine, a heroin addict, who gave birth to her third child in a hostel toilet. At a recent hearing, the judge praised her parenting skills and said he was proud of her. Tim Quinn, the scheme's clinical nurse, says that there is an urgent need to stop the damage and chaos of parental drug and alcohol abuse being transmitted to the next generation.

Only available until 11:32am UK time on Wednesday 16th September

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FROM CRIN:  Now in Chinese "A-Z of Child Rights" (+ 5 other languages)

Our A-Z of child rights is now available in Chinese*, thanks to a CRIN member based in Taiwan, the Taiwan Fund for Children and Families, who translated the text. Read this here.

Read other language versions: Arabic / English / Español / Français / Russian

*Note: The Chinese language has been recorded in two forms: Complex Chinese and Simplified Chinese. This version of the text is in Complex Chinese. Complex Chinese is used in Taiwan and other Chinese speaking countries outside mainland China (e.g. Singapore, Malaysia, Macau, for example), while Simplified Chinese is used mostly in mainland China. Sometimes the Complex Chinese and Simplified Chinese may have different language use patterns, but in general, the meanings are exactly the same.

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infodetail.asp?id=20832
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More new-born children need to be taken into care to stop them being
damaged beyond repair by poor parents, the boss of a children's charity
has said.

Martin Narey, chief executive of Barnardo's, called for less focus
on "fixing families that can't be fixed" and for social workers to be
more pro-active about removing children at risk.

His comments come in the wake of last week's court case involving
two young brothers from Doncaster who viciously attacked an 11-year-old
boy and his nine-year-old nephew.

The siblings were under the care of social services at the time.

Mr Narey told The Observer: "We can't keep trying to fix families
that are completely broken. It sounds terrible, but I think we try too
hard with birth parents. I have seen children sent back to homes that I
certainly wouldn't have sent them back to. I have been extremely
surprised at decisions taken.

"If we really cared about the interests of the child, we would take
children away as babies and put them into permanent adoptive families,
where we know they will have the best possible outcome."

The former director general of the Prison Service added: "If you can
take a baby very young and get them quickly into a permanent adoptive
home, then we know that is where we have success. That's a view that is
seen as a heresy among social services, where the thinking is that if
someone, a parent, has failed, they deserve another chance. My own view
is that we just need to take more children into care if we really want
to put the interests of the child first."

Mr Narey acknowledged his views would be seen as "illiberal heresy"
but argued that if social workers intervened quickly, "we would see far
fewer problems".

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