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Dedicated to the protection and promotion of children’s rights
Coram International works around the world and in the UK with governments, UN bodies, IGOs and NGOs to protect and promote children’s and young people’s human rights
40 years of championing children’s rights
Coram Children’s Legal Centre is celebrating 40 years of championing children’s rights. Read about our history and the work we are doing today in our Championing Children’s Rights publication.
News
New Publication: Situation Analysis of Children in the Pacific Island Countries
Coram International is pleased to share our report on the SitAn of Children in the Pacific Island Countries
This report summarises and synthesises findings from 14 in-depth situation analyses (SitAns) of children in the following Pacific Island Countries and Territories: the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
The report provides evidence to support decision-making across sectors that are relevant to children and adolescents, and is intended, in particular, to contribute to the development of programmes and strategies to protect, respect and fulfill the rights of children and women in the whole Pacific region, covering health and nutrition, WASH, education, child protection, social protection, early childhood development, and adolescents and youth.
Authors: Carolyn Hamilton, Kirsten Anderson, Bruce Grant, Amelia Smith, Rosalie Lord, Farah Elhouni, and Ramyah Harrichandiran
December 2021.


New Publication: Review and Recommendations for Strengthening Transitioning-from-State-Care Services for Youth in the Protection System
Coram International is pleased to share Director Professor Dame Carolyn Hamilton’s new report on the aging out of residential care and detention in Belize.
Research studies from a range of countries indicate that, despite differences in policies, youth who age out of state care have significant similarities in outcomes globally. These young people have difficulty finding stable and affordable housing; accessing a social network, healthcare, and supportive and safe social relationships; and engaging in education, training, and employment.
The present report, focused on youth aging out of residential care and detention in Belize, aims to contribute to the growing literature on frameworks, models, programs, and best practices to address service gaps and barriers and improve outcomes for youth transitioning to post care. The report presents a diagnostic of available services to support youth in Belize to successfully transition to post-care and provides recommendations to strengthen services that improve their post-care outcomes.
July 2022
New Publication: Legislating for the Digital Age
Coram International is pleased to mark the publication of, ‘Legislating for the digital age: Global guide on improving legislative frameworks to protect children from online sexual exploitation and abuse’. The guide, commissioned by UNICEF and written by Coram International, provides practical guidance for governments, civil society, industry and country offices of international organisations to advocate for and develop legislation to protect children from online sexual exploitation and abuse.
The guide adds to existing national model frameworks and toolkits by placing the spotlight on the minimum and recommended standards to be incorporated by States into their legislation, as part of their efforts to prevent and respond effectively to child sexual exploitation and abuse.
The standards, which are presented in the guide through a series of checklists, are accompanied by commentary on the underpinning international and regional laws and guidelines, as well as practical examples of how States have incorporated these standards into their laws in practice. The examples cover a range of common law, civil law and mixed jurisdictions across the world, including Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Ecuador, Egypt, Fiji, Ghana, Ireland, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Moldova, Mongolia, Philippines, UAE, UK, USA and Zimbabwe.
The guide covers standards relating to legislative processes as well as content, including the development of evidence-based legislation; stakeholder engagement and catalysts for legal reform; identification of appropriate methods of legislative reform (such as via criminal justice, cybercrime, child rights, child protection, online safety and/or other law); the criminalisation of online child sexual exploitation and abuse; the rights and responsibilities in relation to business; procedures and methods of investigation; victim support, rehabilitation, reintegration and redress; independent regulation and monitoring; and the implementation of legislation.
The guide offers child rights-based approaches to handling complex issues such as ‘sexting’ and so-called ‘self-generated sexual content’, the regulation of the tech industry and cross-border investigations.
The guide comes at a pivotal moment, as reports indicate an increase in the scale, severity and complexity of online child sexual exploitation and abuse, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. It also coincides with emerging efforts in high-income countries to regulate the tech industry, including the Online Safety Bill in the UK and recent proposals by the European Commission to require online platforms to detect, report and remove child sexual abuse content.
The global guide is based on research and consultations undertaken with governments, civil society, industry, regulators, international organisations as well as practitioners. The Global Guide was commissioned by UNICEF with the support of the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development and the German Agency for International Cooperation.
7 June 2022

What we do

Technical assistance
Coram International combines the excellent specialist expertise of our practitioner experts with robust research to deliver technical work of the highest standard. Our consultative and collaborative approach ensures that our technical work is evidence-based and context-tailored.

Research
Coram International specialises in the design and implementation of applied mixed methods research and evaluation, drawing on a range of quantitative, qualitative and participatory methods. We have a track record of producing high quality and accessible research publications for a broad range of policy, practitioner and academic audiences.

Themes
Coram International specialises in the rights of children and young people. Our expertise covers a high number of topics including child protection, justice and governance, gender equality, reproductive rights, counter-terrorism and extremism.
Featured publications
Study of Violence against Children in Bulgaria
Elizabeth Yarrow and Dr Sophie Hedges
From 2017-2020, Coram International was contracted by UNICEF Bulgaria to assess the current use of physical, sexual and emotional violence, neglect and peer bullying against children in Bulgaria in the home, schools, communities, and in the justice system. The study made findings in relation to the prevalence of such forms of violence and the perpetrators involved. It paid particular attention to the needs of groups of children who have demographic characteristics (‘risk factors’) that make them more likely to experience violence. Lastly the study examined the state/non-state prevention and response to such violence.
Formative and summative evaluation of “Government of Ghana / UNICEF Child Protection Programme (2012 – 2019)”
Professor Dame Carolyn Hamilton, Kara Apland, Jorun Arndt, Dr Sophie Hedges and Elizabeth Yarrow
In 2020, Coram International conducted a formative evaluation of the Government of Ghana and UNICEF’s Child Protection Programme (2012-2019). The evaluation, stretching across two programme cycles, had an expansive geographical scope covering programming across Ghana at national and sub-national levels. The evaluation generated evidence in relation to 4 of the 6 evaluation criteria of OECD/DAC; relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability and UNICEF’s guiding principles of gender, human rights and equity. The evaluation aimed to support learning and decision-making to improve child protection outcomes for girls and boys in Ghana, to hold UNICEF accountable for its contributions to child protection outcomes, to clarify the changes in child protection in Ghana that have been brought about by UNICEF’s programming, and to determine whether the current programme has the right strategic focus to contribute to strengthening the child protection system moving forward. The report has received a rating of “highly satisfactory” from UNICEF’s independent review mechanism GEROS.
Unlocking Children’s Rights
Coram International was co-funded by the EU’s Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Fund for a two-year project to develop training on child-friendly communication skills and child-rights informed practices for those working with children in justice, detention and residential care settings. These training materials are available for use, free of charge.