This project has two distinct components: a public campaign and a training and advocacy project.

NGOs and NGO networks belonging to the RNC will initiate a campaign designed to involve other groups and the public at large. The campaign, whose message is "all children have equal rights and...no child should be discriminated against or excluded from opportunities", will be carried out from June 2003 to June 2004 in the following countries: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Serbia and Montenegro (excluding Province of Kosovo). A campaign kit has been prepared in English and Russian for translation and adaptation for use in each country. The kit includes a poster, a campaign logo, a set of thematic fact sheets, and an RNC brochure. Campaign activities will vary from country to country, but are designed to support local, national, regional and international institutions, including NGOs involved in the promotion, protection, and defence of human rights. The project will focus on bringing children's rights into the mainstream of democratic reform processes in those regions where the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child has been ratified by all governments, but where poverty, violence, discrimination, and neglect impede the Treaty's full realisation.

At the official campaign launch in Istanbul in June 2003, One Minute Videos produced by children/youth from countries in the region will be presented. These videos will focus on exclusion or discrimination of children based on ethnicity or religion, gender, poverty, disability, displacement, HIV/AIDS stigmatisation, and institutionalisation.

The training and advocacy component of the project will take place from January 2003 to December 2004. Following a needs assessment process, a training manual will be developed that will focus on how best to integrate children's rights into policy and programming. A directory of trainers and training materials on child rights will be produced. In addition, five sub-regional trainings of trainers will be conducted, a conference will be held, and policy reform roundtables will take place in each country. The latter will focus on strategies to achieve the goals agreed to at the May 2002 UN Special Session on Children and to implement the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Children, Youth, Social Exclusion, Rights.

According to organisers, despite the fact that all countries in the region have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, there is rarely a coherent and effective child rights approach to either legislation or policy. Prolonged economic decline has been accompanied by a weakening of social safety nets and disinvestment in social services. The impact on children has included increases in the following: numbers of children living in institutions and on the streets; HIV/AIDS infection rates; collapsed pre-school systems; numbers of school drop-outs; and discrimination against children from marginalised groups.

One Minute films is an initiative of UNICEF Young People's Media Network in Europe and Central Asia (YPMN), the European Cultural Foundation (ECF), and the Sandberg Institute. The 2003 One Minute Awards will take place in Amsterdam in November, 2003. All One Minutes produced for the Leave No Child Out Campaign launch in Istanbul will automatically be sent to the One Minute Award event organisers and will become part of the competition. Click here for more information on this aspect of "Leave No Child Out".

Founded in 2002, the RNC is a network of NGOs dedicated to promoting and protecting the rights of children in the CEE/CIS/Baltics region. RNC is part of The Global Movement for Children, an international alliance of individuals and organisations committed to a "world fit for children".