The European Network on Independent Living – ENIL invites its member organisations, other disability rights groups, NGOs, activists, academics and others to support the Call to Action to Protect the Right to Family Life and Prevent Institutionalisation for All Children.

UPDATE: The Call for Action is now available in Easy Read. Download it here.

The signatories to this call to action acknowledge the leadership of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in their efforts to harmonize international human rights standards concerning children deprived of parental care. This call to action seeks to contribute to a range of efforts worldwide to promote consistent interpretation and enforcement of international human rights law in respect of children with disabilities, including the activities of the committees mentioned and other stakeholders and in particular the preparations for a Day of General Discussion on Children’s Rights and Alternative Care scheduled to take place in September 2021 under the auspices of the Committee on the Rights the Child.

The Call to Action is now open for endorsements to organisations advocating for the rights of children with and without disabilities and disability rights groups working at local, country, regional, and global levels. We encourage you to reach out to those organisations that may be interested. We also welcome endorsements from individuals, who in their personal or professional capacity work with children and young people and their families, or advocate for children’s rights, or the rights of persons with disabilities.

Read and support the Call to Action here.

We will produce an updated version of the Call to Action with new endorsements on a regular basis, on this webpage. The more endorsements we have, the bigger the pressure for governments and service providers to ensure that every child has the opportunity to grow up in a family.

Download the Call to Action here, to see the list of current signatories. (Please note that the document is updated once a week.)

[Photo shows a group of children sitting and standing around a sign saying Call to Action. A child in a wheelchair is pointing to the sign.]