Opening of the Child Rights Centre at the Academy of Public Administration under the President of Tajikistan

DUSHANBE, 26 April 2023- The Academy of Public Administration under the President of Tajikistan with support from UNICEF opened the Child Rights Centre- a unique think tank on child rights, specializing in collecting, creating and compiling knowledge, protocols and other training resources on child rights.

The Child Rights Centre has been established with an aim to provide government officials with the knowledge and skills to address the needs of children through high-quality training programmes provided by the Academy. The Centre will further share promising practices and will help to comprehensively address the needs of every child and make decisions in their best interests.

"Children are the future of society. Ensuring children's rights to health protection and development of their health, physical and mental is considered the primary duty of every government servant." highlighted Rector of the Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Republic of Tajikistan, Gafurzoda Abdukhalil Davlatali during his opening speech.

The Republic of Tajikistan ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1993, pledging to the global society to uphold the rights of all children in the country and to commit to measures that ensure every child's right to a healthy upbringing, a proper education, and freedom from violence and exploitation. By ratifying the Convention, the country also pledged to enable children to have their voices heard and participate in the decisions impacting their lives in their families, communities and the society.

"I believe that the Child Rights Center made a valuable contribution to raising the level of knowledge and skills of civil servants who work directly with children at the local level. On behalf of the students, who will benefit from the studies and activities within this center in the future."- noted Mahmadnazarova Shukrona student of the Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Republic of Tajikistan.

Since 1993, the Government of Tajikistan has achieved a significant progress towards realization of child rights since the ratification of the Convention. Some of  these include the National Concept on Inclusive Education, National Strategy on Education Development 2030, National Communication Plan for ‘1000 golden days’, Law on Child Rights Protection, National Plan of Action for Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour, National Plan of Action for implementation of the UNCRC Concluding Observations.

“UNICEF appreciates the commitment of the Academy of Public Administration to incorporate child rights in their agenda through capacity-building interventions and evidence generation. As an organization for which child rights are at the heart of everything we do, UNICEF is proud to officially inaugurate the Centre, and we are confident that this initiative will significantly impact children's lives in the future.”- noted Mr. Osama Makkawi Khogali, UNICEF’s Representative in Tajikistan.