The organisers of the 2016 London Value Investor Conference are pleased that the Conference raised a total of £27,025 for the Children’s Division of Human Rights Watch.

For more than two decades, the Children’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch has worked to expose and curb some of the most serious human rights violations against children, who are among the most vulnerable to violence, exploitation, and abuse. We have had significant influence by conducting in-depth research, broad media outreach, and high-level advocacy aimed at bringing attention to children’s rights and pushing at the national, regional, and international levels for lasting changes that will improve the lives of children worldwide.

We focus on core issues on which we have built expertise over many years and where we feel that we can make a real difference. These issues include eliminating the use of child soldiers, keeping children out of the most dangerous forms of child labor, ensuring that all children have access to education, protecting schools from being attacked during war, creating a fairer system for children accused of crimes, and increasing protections for unaccompanied migrant children. To uncover, document, and challenge human rights abuses, we begin by conducting meticulous on-site investigations. Our researchers speak to victims, witnesses, victims’ families, local activists, government officials, and others to assemble a complete and accurate picture of human rights practices and policies that apply to children in a particular country. We then release reports, multimedia, and other materials to publicize the findings, and launch intensive advocacy campaigns to pressure abusers to respect rights. Our experts share their findings with governments and develop detailed recommendations for rights-respecting reform.

Our work has led to meaningful change. For example, we spearheaded the international campaign to ban the use of child soldiers, resulting in a treaty that 162 countries have now ratified. We have investigated this practice in over 15 countries around the globe, using our findings to press governments to stop recruiting children and working with courts to hold military leaders accountable. When we took up this issue, children were serving in armed conflict in 30 countries. Today, that number is 18.

As one of the leading human rights organization in the world, Human Rights Watch is an independent, international organization that works as part of a vibrant movement to uphold human dignity and advance the cause of human rights for all. For more information about the Children’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, please visit https://www.hrw.org/topic/childrens-rights.