Orientation to the United Nations, ILO, UNICEF and WHO in Geneva

I talk about and write about the United Nations every day including:

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)
• Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
• Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (CRPD)
• United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)

Today (12 Nov) was my first time visiting Geneva - and I spent the day orienting myself to:

• United Nations
• Red Cross (CICR)
• World Health Organization (WHO)
• International Labor Organization (ILO)
• UNICEF
• UN Migration (IOM) 

It is very special to visit these important places that have shaped the world.

Broken chair - Giving a voice to victims of explosive weapons

Palais des Nations | The United Nations Office at Geneva

Snowy mountaintops in the distance

United Nations

Red Cross - Comité international de la Croix-Rouge

The People's Wall "This work explores the themes of identity, migration, the construction of shared narratives, and living together...imagining a world of diversity where everyone can find their place" (Philip Baldwin and Monica Guggisberg) - installation at Red Cross

WHO

ILO and UNICEF

UN Migration

Walking around Geneva on this gorgeous autumn day reminded me of the Parliamentary Triangle in Canberra in autumn. 

Presentation to UNICEF UK

Today I co-presented an invited paper at the UNICEF UK  Child Rights Academic Research Network with my colleague Prof Yvonne Wren from Bristol University/Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK. 

The purpose of the Network is as follows:

"From the perspective of UNICEF UK, the broad intentions of the network are to:
- Develop an understanding of the scale and scope of research and other activities being undertaken on child rights in the UK
- Provide a forum for disseminating and sharing emerging and final research findings with the network, internal teams, and other key stakeholders such as programme implementers, in other words linking theory with practice.
- Create opportunities for scaling up research on child rights in general, developing the evidence base for our three UUK programmes and other relevant aspects of our work including advocacy and youth voice."

Our presentation was titled "Ensuring all children have a voice: Upholding a child’s right to communicate in the context of speech, language and communication needs". 

Here is today's program - packed with excellent presentations:

I was able to profile the work of the Children's Voices Centre and some of the work we have done over the years including:

• Roulstone, S., & McLeod, S. (Eds.). (2011). Listening to children and young people with speech, language and communication needs. J&R Press. http://www.jr-press.co.uk/communication-needs.html 
• Mahony, L., McLeod, S., Salamon, A., & Dwyer, J. (Eds.). (2024). Early childhood voices: Children, families, professionals. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-56484-0
• McLeod, S. (2018). Communication rights: Fundamental human rights for all. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(1), 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2018.1428687
•  McCormack, J., McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J., & Holliday, E. L. (2022). Drawing talking: Listening to children with speech sound disorders. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 53(3), 713-731. https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_LSHSS-21-00140
• McLeod, S., Gregoric, C., Davies, J., Dealtry, L., Delli-Pizzi, L., Downey, B., Elwick, S., Hopf, S. C., McAlister, H., Ivory, N., Murray, E., Sikder, S., Rahman, A., Tran, V. H., & Zischke, C. (2025). Children draw talking around the world. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools. Manuscript accepted for publication.
  
  
  
  

Invitation to speak at the UNICEF UK Child Rights Academic Research Network meeting

I have been invited to speak with Prof Yvonne Wren at the UNICEF UK Child Rights Academic Research Network meeting on June 18th at 1-3pm focusing on child/youth voice. Our talk is titled "Ensuring all children have a voice: Upholding a child’s right to communicate in the context of speech, language and communication needs"

Huong Le (UNICEF, UK) indicated that while the network primarily aims to focus on work being undertaken in the UK they welcome learning and research from other parts of the world as well.

The brief is to:

1.    Provide a brief overview of your research on child/youth voice
2.    What are the key findings?
3.    What are the implications of your research for those working in practice?
4.    (Optional fourth question) What are the implications of your research for promoting children's rights?