Students from Network Course on Children’s Rights Convene Mock UN Committee Hearing in Berlin

In May, instructors Kerry Bystrom, Professor of English and Director of Special Global Initiatives at Bard College Berlin; Helen Epstein, Professor of Human Rights and Global Public Health at Bard College; Jana Lozanoska, Professor of Human Rights at Al-Quds Bard College for Arts and Sciences; and Venera Urbaeva, American University of Central Asia, met in Berlin with students from BCB and nine traveling student representatives from AQB, AUCA, and Bard for a conference on “Opportunities and Challenges for Protecting Children’s Rights” based on their Network Collaborative Course “Children’s Rights.” 

The course was designed to lead to a mock hearing of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the treaty monitoring body which reviews the compliance of State Parties with their treaty obligations. Students worked in groups throughout the semester developing NGO-style advocacy reports to present to the Committee at a mock pre-sessional hearing, a forum which forms an important part of the official reporting cycle and is aimed at helping the Committee build its list of issues for review to be sent to each State Party. To guide students in writing their reports, instructors held a number of joint classes discussing the reporting process through which State Party compliance is monitored and were then expected to produce final research reports which conform to the requirements and standards expected by the Committee.

The conference served as the course’s version of the pre-sessional hearings, with eleven students presenting their groups’ advocacy reports to a mock committee chaired by Fred Abrahams, Guest Professor of Human Rights at Bard College Berlin and formerly Associate Program Director at Human Rights Watch. The topics discussed included child victims of violence or abuse in Kyrgyzstan; arbitrary detention of minors in the West Bank; starvation of families in Gaza; right to healthcare of children in Ghana; child labor abuses in the Democratic Republic of Congo; the rights of migrant children in Thailand; and the treatment of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum in Germany. 

The conference also featured a keynote panel on the challenges and possibilities of protecting children’s rights through international criminal law, exploring how gaps in legal protection  possibilities could be filled by a variety of types of storytelling. Bystrom moderated the panel, which included comments from Ukrainian human rights communications expert Maryna Hovorukhina, Professors Peter Schneck and Laura Zander from University of Osnabrück, who  lead a research project on human rights and literature, and Jana Lozanoska. The speakers enabled students to think about the wider context in which the UN Committee treaty monitoring process works and to view alternative systems for child rights protection, from courts to grassroots mobilization and advocacy work. 

The instructors agreed that the in-person meeting greatly enhanced the connected, collaborative theme of the networked course although they also noted a need for developing a model that integrates students who were not able to be in Berlin at the conference.

“It was incredible to see the students come together and share the research they completed over the semester with each other and with professors from around the OSUN network and experts in the field of human rights monitoring and advocacy, “ said Bystrom. 

“Everyone learned so much, about the differing situations and needs of children around the world, about the practicalities of doing human rights work, and about the importance of connecting with others committed to ensuring that children everywhere can grow up in dignity and safety. Work this important and large-scale can only be done together,” she added.  

Post Date: 06-09-2025