Holding the State Accountable – Proceedings of the International Colloquium on Children and Governance

This conference report was compiled following an international colloquium on children and governance that was held in New Delhi, July 20-22, and timed to coincide with the 20th year of reporting to the UNCRC and the 10th year of HAQ’s own existence. During the three-day international colloquium on children and governance, national and international experts and policy makers working in the field of child rights and protection debated the issue of effective and improved governance for children from a child rights perspective. The colloquium broadly aimed to: frame a working definition of ‘governance for children’; assess State accountability and its role in empowering children (or the lack of it); widen the discourse of ’children in governance’; evaluate the role of legal instruments and the relevance of international agreements and State compliance to them; and arrive at a consensus on pre-requisites for good governance for children as well as on tools and indicators and models to monitor and measure State accountability.