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May the adventure begin!
It is my great honor that Switzerland has put forth my candidacy to become a member of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. Election day in New York is on June 29, 2018!
It would be extraordinary to be able to work with the 17 other Committee members.
As a full Professor at the University of Geneva, cofounder and the Director of its Centre for Children’s Rights Studies, I would contribute:
- a resolutely interdisciplinary and psychosocial vision of the rights of the child through my training as a psychologist, a perspective that complements and enriches the traditional legal approach;
- in-depth knowledge of child and adolescent development and of the evolution of cognitive, emotional, and social capabilities that lead to the gradual acquisition of autonomy and participatory rights;
- the skills and tools to interact with and to hear the growing number of children and adolescents who meet with the Committee on the Rights of the Child, including those who are experiencing dramatic life circumstances and for whom respectful listening and the preservation of dignity must take precedence;
- a scientific point of view that values the consideration of evidence-based data, but also a solid human experience forged by numerous educational, clinical, and humanitarian field missions to the four corners of the earth;
- a conviction that, for optimal deployment, the Convention on the Rights of the Child needs collaborations, the involvement of all the actors concerned (including children), while respecting the specific conditions of each State Party, and federating the best contributions of the UN agencies and the myriad of NGOs essential to the well-being of children and their families and to the progress of humanity.
Language skills: English and French (native proficiency), Italian (fluent), Spanish and German (limited working proficiency).
www.jaffe.ch