This Project funded by Misean Cara is conceived as the follow up to the project Strengthening Bolivia’s civil society in the context of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR)” run in Bolivia in 2018-2019 by FMSI, International Catholic Center of Geneva (CCIG), Edmund Rice International (ERI) with a coalition of 19 civil society actors in Bolivia. Upon the completion of that project, 45 Human Rights’ Defenders, belonging to the 19 local and international organizations that participated, were trained on UN Human Rights mechanisms for the promotion and protection of human rights, especially the UPR.
The new Project “Children’s and women’s rights in Bolivia: Follow up on the UN bodies recommendations” aims at scaling-up and further improving the situation of women and children in Bolivia, through an effective implementation of recommendations from the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
Bolivia was reviewed under the UPR in 2019 and will be reviewed by CRC in 2021. This is a unique opportunity for the Bolivian civil society (CSO) to foster the implementation of women, youth and child rights, by monitoring the 28 recommendations stemming from the lobbying of the local coalition in the first project. FMSI, CCIG, ERI worked on this new initiative on child and youth participation, gender violence and child labor. The project was approved by Misean Cara in May 2021 and will start in December 2021.
The Project will: enable CSO to address human rights violations and evaluate the government’s compliance with human rights obligations (Outcome 1); and will allow vulnerable women and children to be more aware of their rights and be better equipped to defend them (Outcome 2).
Accordingly, the capacity of CSO representatives to monitor and follow up on international recommendations on children’s and women’s rights will be enhanced.
- Activities will include: an on-line course on how to follow up on UPR and CRC recommendations; the creation of a group of CSOs leading the monitoring activity;
- a training cycle for youth on the right to participation; awareness raising events on child rights advocacy using social media;
- collection of quantitative and qualitative data on child labor, with the support of the academia;
- education spaces to empower child workers to defend their rights and make their voices heard;
- workshops to prevent gender violence and empower victims to seek justice; informative sessions on National Law 348/2013 (violence against women).
FMSI will support the Marist Brothers Institute, in particular the Marist Province of Santa Maria de los Andes, determined to implement this project as a continuation of its multiple advocacy actions implemented in Bolivia and as a vital part of its strategic presence in South America and as a way to improve access to rights especially in favour of disadvantaged children and youth.
