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About Us
Defence for Children International (DCI) is an international children's rights movement that is active at the national, regional and international levels. It has consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), UNICEF, UNESCO and the Council of Europe.
DCI – a non-governmental and non-profit organisation – was established in Geneva in 1979, the International Year of the Child. DCI was set up in direct response to the lack of a human rights-based approach to the multi-faceted problems faced by the world's children. DCI was at the forefront in the drafting and adoption process of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Following the unanimous adoption of the Convention by the UN General Assembly on 20 November 1989, DCI national sections lobbied successfully their governments to ratify the new Convention. The work of DCI is based on the principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, by monitoring its actual implementation and systematic application by States parties.
On the international level, DCI has identified juvenile justice as its main area of intervention. DCI lobbies at the national, regional and international level for the protection of the rights of the child in conflict with the law, by researching the situation of children in detention, by promoting international juvenile justice standards and alternative sanctions, and by implementing national and regional juvenile justice programs.