This linked event to the GRF Progress Review 2025 is an important opportunity to spotlight advances in child rights and protections under the GCR, highlight progress on the implementation of the GRF 2023 Multistakeholder Pledges on Child Rights and on Family Reunification, and identify areas where further impact can be made to support implementation in policy, research and practice.

This is particularly important in the context of rising and unprecedented global numbers of forcibly displaced children, the current context of radically constricted resourcing, and current stocktaking efforts undertaken by the Pledge leads (Initiative for Child Rights in the Global Compacts and the Global Family Reunification Network). As a linked event to the GRF Progress Review 2025, this event is designed to engage diverse stakeholders and expand the reach of the GRF Progress Review, facilitating dialogue, knowledge-sharing, and collaboration among stakeholders engaged in global refugee responses and advance family reunification and child rights.

About the event

This event is an opportunity to:

• Showcase impactful initiatives to strengthen child rights and protections under the GCR, with a focus on accessing family reunification,
• Share advancements in delivering on the Multistakeholder Pledge on Family Reunification and the Multistakeholder Pledge on Child Rights,
• Exchange current research, policy and practice approaches to implementation of the pledges,
• Engage a diversity of stakeholders and audiences beyond the formal GRF Progress Review programme and broaden its reach.

Format

This event will be structured as a moderated panel, with dedicated time allocated for Q&A. Panellists will include representatives from States, UN entities and civil society, researchers, those with lived experience, those working in global level policy, and practitioners working to deliver on the multistakeholder pledges.

Event programme

Opening remarks

• Ruvendrini Menikdiwela, UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Protection

Moderator

• Vincent Chetail, Geneva Graduate Institute Professor of International Law and Director, Global Migration Centre

Panellists

• John Mugisha, Senior Probation and Welfare Officer, Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development in Uganda
• Jyothi Kanics, Director, Policy and Advocacy, Europe, Kids in Need of Defense (KIND)
• Tasha Gill, Global Lead Migration and Displacement, UNICEF
• Angel, Youth Leader, Plan International
• Nadine Liddy, Research Associate, Centre for Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding at the Geneva Graduate Institute, Co-Lead FRUN Working Group on Unaccompanied and Separated Children and Adolescents

Closing remarks

• Chocho Fashingabo, Executive Director of Youth Voices Community
• Daniela Reale, Chair, Initiative for Child Rights in the Global Compacts

About the partners

Organised by the Centre for Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP), Global Migration Centre (GMC), the Global Family Reunification Network (FRUN), the Initiative for Child Rights in the Global Compacts, and the Geneva Graduate Institute Student-led Migration Initiative.