This toolkit is intended for community leaders, local children’s rights advocates, and staff of local child-serving and child-led institutions and agencies to help mobilize and coordinate resources in communities to develop effective monitoring practices for the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. It may also be useful to children’s rights advocates who are working regionally, nationally, and internationally. This toolkit includes an introduction to the concepts and history behind the human and children’s rights movements, plus an overview of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC); an introduction to CRC monitoring and the reporting process; a definition of “community monitoring” plus a framework for organizing a community monitoring initiative or project; step-by-step instructions for a community leader or organization to lead a monitoring initiative, focusing on existing strengths and assets in the community and drawing from the background information and learning exercises; a community monitoring report template that is designed to help communities document and share their monitoring report with other communities in Canada and participate in the national CRC monitoring process.
