Who We Are
The International Institute for Child Rights and Development (IICRD) is a unique hybrid organization: part non-governmental organization (NGO), part academic institution, located in Victoria, British Columbia (BC), focused on social innovation with and for children and youth. For the past 20 years, IICRD has been a bridge building organization working with a wide variety of partners in participatory, applied research, professional education, and community capacity building initiatives. Our programs and projects catalyze change, transformation, and healing for the most vulnerable young people in our society, in Canada and in over 30 countries around the world.
Our Purpose
Our purpose is to build respect for children’s inherent human dignity, nurture their sense of belonging, and reinforce justice at all levels through the implementation of strengths based approaches to child rights. We aim to enhance the capacity of individuals, organizations, governments and young people to transform systems to fulfill their rights as defined by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Our vision
Children, their families and communities thrive in a world where there is dignity, belonging, and justice for all.
Our Mission
With a focus on working with children and communities living in adversity, IICRD‘s work promotes the rights and wellbeing of children at all levels. IICRD transforms lives by:
- promoting learning, and nurturing capacities, knowledge, practices, and policies that place the wellbeing and the rights of children, their families, and communities at the centre.
- facilitating innovative, strength based and child led processes at the community, organizational, and international levels
- fostering healing and accountability to children,
- connecting actors across the child protection system.
Our Logo
Our holistic integrated approach to issues affecting children is reflected in our logo: Two thunderbirds in flight, protecting male and female ancestral figures. It was designed and gifted to IICRD by a young Coast Salish woman, Rita George Greene.
Our History
1990: United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) came into effect.
1994: Stronger Children, Stronger Families: conference held in Victoria, British Columbia, and was the impetus for creating a centre focused on the meaningful implementation of child rights, based at the University of Victoria.
1994: The Unit for Research and Education on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was founded under the direction of Dr. Philip Cook, an assistant professor within the School of Child and Youth Care at the University of Victoria.
1996: Partnerships with Indigenous people on Canada’s west coast and in Latin America were central to the Units’ evolving niche in grounding child rights in cultural practices supporting children. This learning was highlighted in the “Caring for Indigenous Children” Conference and led to the creation of IICRD’s logo.
2000: Dr. Cook relocated the Unit to the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria in order to focus exclusively on its work. At this time, the Unit was renamed the Institute for Child Rights and Development (ICRD).
2002: The International Institute for Child Rights and Development/Institut international pour les droits des enfants et le développement (IICRD) was incorporated as a federal non-share capital corporation
2006: IICRD was granted charitable status from Revenue Canada
Currently, IICRD is an independent non-profit charitable organization located in downtown Victoria, BC, Canada, and is affiliated with Royal Roads University in co-hosting post secondary courses on child protection in development (CPID).
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