Emerging Topics

Entering the final decade to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, it is clear that we have a long way to go. These goals, while ambitious, were designed to establish a roadmap that, with the support of a committed global coalition, would be achievable. March 11, 2020, marks the day the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, also known as COVID-19, was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization. A year later, this experience serves as an urgent call to unprecedented action, highlighting the deep inequalities and shortcomings that inspired the movement behind the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Climate Agreement.

At INFANCIA LATINA, we are committed to serving as a unifying platform to guide, coordinate, and accelerate action in Latin America and the Caribbean toward achieving the SDGs. As UN Secretary-General António Guterres says, “We need to see this recovery as a legitimate opportunity to get things right for the future.”.

Girls and women face social, economic, and political barriers in all areas of their lives. Gender equality (SDG 5) is a fundamental right that has been universally accepted as a specific Goal for the 2030 Agenda because it is a key element in fostering peace, development, and creating a prosperous and sustainable world. To achieve this goal, a gender perspective must be incorporated into the conceptual frameworks, strategies, and technical approaches of organizations, as well as into their institutional policies. In the long term, this perspective can transform deeply rooted social institutions, laws, cultural norms, and community practices that exclude women.¹.

At INFANCIA LATINA, we know that educating and providing opportunities for every girl is one of the best investments you can make for a society.

Today's children and adolescents were born into a context of accelerated technological innovation that has fundamentally changed how they learn, communicate, and interact. Unlike previous generations, they have never known life without the internet, where information is accessible almost instantly, and social networks are increasingly ubiquitous in their lives. This reality presents significant opportunities for proactive learning, the exchange of experiences, and the participation of young people in social movements. At the same time, it presents serious challenges if users lack the ability to navigate these spaces responsibly and safely.

At INFANCIA LATINA we are committed to promoting efforts that strengthen digital skills that help children and adolescents and their parents in:

• detect misinformation;
• take steps to ensure your personal safety;
• take care of your mental health and develop positive social skills;
• adapt to the future of education and work, promoting equitable access;
• and in mitigating their risks of online exploitation and harassment.

Armed violence in Latin America and the Caribbean is a constant in the region, making some areas of the continent among the most dangerous in the world. This is related to many factors, including income inequality, unemployment, social factors, low-quality education, low school retention rates, high impunity, corrupt leadership, and the proliferation of organized crime fueled by drug trafficking and those involved in the arms trade, particularly from the United States. Therefore, a child's place of birth can have significant implications for their opportunities to grow up in a safe and supportive environment. Exposure to adverse childhood experiences from an early age can have lasting effects on children and adolescents, manifesting as cognitive delays and the perpetuation of violent behavior, thus contributing to the cycle of violence.

At INFANCIA LATINA, we are committed to monitoring these serious human rights abuses against children and adolescents in the region and promoting the alignment of national laws and policies with international standards related to armed violence and security. We are committed to creating regional spaces for dialogue where we can promote multilateral strategies to address this major systemic challenge. We will promote comprehensive initiatives for at-risk children and adolescents focused on behavior change and children's participation in violence prevention, training them as agents of change in their communities.

Migration is not a new phenomenon in the Americas; however, the current forces driving migration and the sheer number of people on the move are cause for alarm. Community violence, corruption, poverty, and a lack of economic opportunities are known to be among the main drivers, and the journey is notoriously dangerous. The situation is especially dire for unaccompanied migrant children; LGBTQ+ people fleeing persecution; children and youth fleeing gangs; and children with disabilities who cannot receive adequate care in their countries of origin. Most migrants using informal channels will not reach their destination safely, and many will have to abandon their dreams and rebuild their lives in unforeseen circumstances. This presents challenges for receiving communities, which often face many of the same economic and resource constraints that can lead to aggression or exploitation of migrants, placing children in a highly vulnerable position.

At INFANCIA LATINA we are committed to monitoring these migratory flows, particularly the mechanisms aimed at supporting and ensuring the protection of the immigrant or transmigrant population.

The Paris Agreement, which entered into force on November 4, 2016, is the first legally binding international treaty on climate change, adopted by 196 countries worldwide. This multilateral effort aims to unite nations behind a common cause: combating climate change and adapting to its effects. The Agreement also provides a framework for financial, technical, and capacity-building support to countries and regions that may need it.² For many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, the effects of climate change are already having a significant impact on the health and livelihoods of communities, as well as on migration patterns as climate change events become more frequent and severe. According to UNICEF, children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, especially children under five, who are more susceptible to climate-related illnesses such as malaria, dengue fever, and diarrhea. Marginalized children are even more disadvantaged, often lacking basic infrastructure such as clean water, which makes it difficult for them to recover from environmental crises.

At INFANCIA LATINA, we are committed to supporting the countries of the region in aligning themselves with their commitments to the Paris Agreement, placing children at the heart of all strategies and response plans, while recognizing the role that children and adolescents have demonstrated as agents of change in the current crisis. Children and adolescents have generated a movement to mitigate the harmful effects of climate change, and our hope for a climate-resilient future will only be possible with urgent action from governments and ordinary citizens.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), adopted in 1989, changed the paradigm of how we relate to children, shifting the view from a private matter to a public one. This entailed establishing a series of responsibilities at all levels of the States that signed the CRC: central, state, municipal, provincial, and departmental.

In this sense, the Comprehensive Protection Systems for the Rights of Girls, Boys and Adolescents (SIPINNA) are designed for the alignment, mainstreaming, design and implementation of public policy with a human rights perspective for children and adolescents in the bodies, instances, norms, policies, services and budgets.

At INFANCIA LATINA we are committed to supporting the establishment of SIPINNA at the national, local and municipal levels to respect, promote, protect, restore and reinstate the rights of girls, boys and adolescents; and to repair the damage caused by the violation of these rights.