PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad & Tobago: The Institute of International Relations (IIR) of The University of the West Indies and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a Hub for the creation and facilitation of the Caribbean Child Rights Observatory Network (CCRON).
 
As signatories to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, CARICOM member countries are therefore committed by treaty to respecting, protecting and fulfilling the rights of all children in their respective countries. CCRON will ensure collection of relevant data, accurate analysis and dissemination of information on the situation of children in the region, while reporting and providing feedback as well as support to countries in the implementation and development of evidence-informed policies for children across the Caribbean.
 
Professor Andy Knight, IIR Director, noted that the IIR-managed Hub and network will serve a role as an advocate for children’s issues, giving a voice to the most excluded and disadvantaged groups in the region. It will work in close collaboration with UNICEF, Governments and Non-Governmental Agencies to provide technical guidance.  The Hub is expected to monitor specific rights violations of children and, in particular, discrimination and exclusion and seek to create visibility and inform change for key issues impacting children.
 
UNICEF Representative for the Eastern Caribbean Area, Ms Khin-Sandi Lwin believes that this new relationship with the IIR will make a tangible difference in the lives of children all across the English-speaking Caribbean. “We have long lamented the lack of reliable data to monitor the situation of children for evidence-informed decision making and this is the basis for this Memorandum of Understanding,” she said.
 
Senator the Honourable Dr Bhoendradatt Tewarie, Minister of Planning and Sustainable Developmentof Trinidad and Tobago, who witnessed the signing by Ms Khin-Sandi Lwin and Professor Andy Knight, agreed that “the partnership between UWI (through IIR) and UNICEF makes the country and region stronger in the context of information and knowledge for monitoring and evaluation and for decision making. Children’s issues in Trinidad and Tobago and our region is a troubling, vexing problem. But today is a happy day!” 
 
 
Photo caption L-R: Ms Khin-Sandi Lwin, UNICEF Representative for the Eastern Caribbean Area and Professor Andy Knight, Director of The UWI’s Institute Of International Relations sign the MOU, while  the Senator the Honourable Dr Bhoendradatt Tewarie, Minister of Planning witnessed