HAQ: Centre for Child Rights

The organisation concentrates on assuring children's rights through governance. Governments are required to uphold these rights, which involve three main duties: respecting, safeguarding, and fulfilling children's rights. The obligation to respect means avoiding interference with children's rights. Protection requires preventing, investigating, and addressing abuses by others. Fulfilment demands that Governments implement measures to gradually achieve children's rights and provide for their basic needs, especially when families can't. The organisation's main efforts include creating tools to watch over Government actions and make sure they meet children's rights. This includes examining budgets, evaluating performance, following political processes, and reviewing legal interventions.

The organisation stresses that all children possess an intrinsic right to protection, whether at home, school, or in public spaces, and regardless of the situation. This right is essential for their overall well-being and development, and it complements other rights like survival and engagement. The organisation emphasizes effective governance and human rights as key components of children's well-being.

Child protection involves safeguarding children from harm and supporting their self-reliance. It addresses both neglect and abuse, requiring acknowledgement of the issue's scale, corrective actions through justice systems, protective laws and policies, and remedies such as counselling and rehabilitation. The organisation's Child Protection Programme offers legal aid and counselling to children, enhances the skills of service providers, campaigns against child exploitation, and visits facilities for children.

HAQ: Centre for Child Rights conducts impactful training initiatives. It addresses the lack of awareness among law enforcement personnel about child-related laws, conducting training sessions for police officers, including Sub-Inspectors and Constables. These programmes cover the Juvenile Justice Act and broader child rights issues, yielding positive outcomes. Simultaneously, HAQ empowers children through workshops that use creative arts and discussions. These workshops encourage children to explore their needs, rights, and responsibilities, fostering their expression and awareness of rights within national laws. The innovative approach blends traditional art teaching with rights concepts, guiding children to grasp the connection between needs, rights, and responsibilities.

The organization emphasizes the necessity to realize children's human rights through policy, law, and action. It believes that effective advocacy requires the integration of research, documentation, and legal action, forming a holistic approach. HAQ's advocacy involves more than mere campaigning; it strives to influence policy formulation and change, collaborating directly or indirectly with Governmental departments, ministries, commissions, and NGOs. Utilizing insights from local experiences, HAQ connects micro and macro levels, translating grassroots concerns into national and global advocacy issues. This advocacy encompasses independent initiatives, collaborative campaigns, fact-finding missions, strategic legal actions, and contributions to government and non-governmental law and policy efforts.

HAQ: Centre for Child Rights leverages robust research for effective advocacy despite not being an academic institution. This empirical approach bolsters credibility and evidentiary backing. Research is pivotal to understanding Child Rights comprehensively and tackling crucial child-centric issues. By bridging information gaps, HAQ creates a data repository for advocacy, training, and public education. It conducts independent research and collaborates with UNICEF and the Indian Government, producing practical resources like handbooks. In a decade, HAQ's research spanned child labour, trafficking, juvenile justice, disasters, housing, and education. Initiatives like budget analysis and status reports further holistic Indian child rights comprehension, aiding Governmental commitments' implementation. HAQ's budget analysis influences Government child budgeting, and its status reports benefit Governmental and non-governmental agencies invested in children's welfare.