European Network of Ombudspersons for Children (ENOC)

NICCY is a member of The European Network of Ombudspersons for Children (ENOC). It is comprised of 42 Institutions across 34 countries and is a not-for-profit association of independent children’s rights institutions (ICRIs). Its mandate is to facilitate the promotion and protection of the rights of children, as formulated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Theme of the 24th Annual Conference in November 2020 was ‘Child Rights Impact Assessment’.  ENOC worked extensively in the year prior to the Conference on this and their 2020 Position Statement and Common Framework of Reference on Child Rights Impact Assessment (CRIA) were unanimously adopted by the ENOC Annual General Assembly held on 18 November 2020.  The European Network of Young Advisors (ENYA) from member States also worked extensively on contributing to and informing work on the theme.

ENOC Members bring this Statement with the necessary Calls to their respective Governments and Legislatures.  We have therefore brought this to the attention of NI Ministers and their Departments to take necessary action, following Members’ Calls on the NI Executive to:

‘use Child Rights Impact Assessment (CRIA) and Child Rights Impact Evaluation (CRIE) processes to help embed children’s rights in law, policy, budgetary allocation, and other administrative decisions; and promote and support its use among all public bodies.’

Members’ recommendations are ‘intended to ensure governments comply with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and other international human rights treaties as they affect children and young people.’

CRIA publications and resources 

The following ENOC CRIA publications and resources were developed:

• ENOC Position Statement on Child Rights Impact Assessment
• ENOC Synthesis Report analyzing the findings of the questionnaire on CRIA
• ENOC Common Framework of Reference on CRIA
• A MS Word template for undertaking CRIA based on the Common Framework of Reference
• ENYA Report and recommendations

ENOC has established links to share information and strategies with independent children’s rights institutions – children’s ombudspersons, commissioners for children, or focal points on children’s rights in national human rights institutions or general ombudsman offices.

More Info

You can find out more information on ENOC and their work using the following links:

You can find out more about ENOC here on their website

You can read the ENOC position and joint statements here