The UN Convention the Rights of the Child, the very piece of legislation that establishes the rights and duties of parents for the best interest of their children, has been ratified globally, in all countries except the USA. European parents have 30 years of experience working for protecting the rights of their children by joining forces in a European organisation.
Global challenges, as well as local challenges that may be faced knowing answers from other localities call for a wider cooperation among parents from all over the world. This is the reason why we are calling everybody, including parents, but also teachers, social workers, researchers, psychologists, teacher trainers, students, policy makers, etc. who are interested in supporting parents, to join us in a new global parents’ network.
A group of parents from all over Europe and beyond has decided to launch the International Parents’ Network, with the ambition to establish a global forum and global lobby group for parents and on issues for parents. Our aim is to start an online discussion, a sharing of knowledge, relevant research and experiences, as well as trying to trigger further research and lobby together for policy change.
To start with we are going to cover the following topics:
- supporting parents to become the best educators of their children
- post-PISA: increasing parental involvement in formal education for thinking and acting together for education suitable for 21st century children
- fighting illiteracy, promoting reading
- equal opportunities for girls and women, education of girls and mothers
- supporting parents in becoming the main advocates of the rights of the child
- the right to mother tongue and mother culture, even for migrants
- digital literacy and living in the digital age
- empowerment for active citizenship and participation
- fighting xenophobia, hate speech, exclusion, supporting inclusion for a peaceful future
You can join IPA by sending an e-mail to the following address: InternationalParentsNetwork@gmail.com) and expressing your wish to act for parents and children. We are building our community online first, but with the ambition of organising a first global meeting for parents – in person, but also offering possibilities to join us online – at the beginning of 2017.
Join us today to support good parenting and defend the rights of our children.
