Who best promotes human rights and, more specifically, the rights of children?

1. ADEJUC (Alianza para el Desarrollo Juvenil Comunitario, Guatemala) is a leadership programme for children in which more than 4000 are educators. Local groups are formed in which the children lobby and present petitions to be included in the Convention on the Rights of Children. Older children teach subjects as diverse as improving cattle raising, constructing sewers, empowering women to confront domestic violence, and making Mayan children aware of the values in their own culture.
   Contact Mádel Rodríguez . <adejucsc@guate.net>
   
   
2. O Movimiento Nacional de Meninos e Meninas de Rua (todo Brasil) involves and organizes street children on a national level. By putting pressure on the government, they have succeeded in getting many new laws in favour of children to be passed. The members of the Movimiento are part of the Consejos Tutelares- local committees composed of ordinary citizens and politicians working together to protect the rights of children.
   Contact Joseleno dos Santos <joseleno@brhs.com.br>
   or Eliena Francisca de Barros <mnmmrdf@mndh.org.br>
   
   
3. Ednica (Ciudad de México) publishes an excellent book called “Él que calla, otorga” which teaches local militants how to promote the human rights of children in their communities.
   Contact Carmen Echeverría, ednica@laneta.apc.org
   
   
4. INESC (Brasília, Brasil) has achieved success through lobbying in favour of the interests of street children. Because this NGO has recruited a multi-party group of sympathetic parliamentarians, they are able to conduct research, submit proposals and assure that relevant laws are enforced.
   In Perú, Acción por los Niños is the most important NGO involved in similar lobbying efforts. They have succeeded in altering many laws in Perú in favour of street children. Jussara de Goias, INESC, <Jussarag@inesc.org.br>
   Jaime Jesús Pérez, Acción por los Niños, postmaster@accionporlosninos.org.pe
   
   
5. Proyecto Miguilim (Belo Horizonte, Brasil)
   The project trains and collaborates with a special police squad committed to working with street children. Since this project began, the violations of the human rights of street children have diministed dramatically.
   Contact Marcio or Marcos Aníbal Miguilim@pbh.gov.br
   
   
6. ANDI (Agencia de Noticias los Derechos da Infancia, Brasilia, Brasil) promotes children´s rights and distributes articles about children that have been published in Brasilian newspapers. The program also awards prizes to journalists who write the best articles about children and inform them about human rights-related issues.
   The Red por los Derechos de la Infancia in México does similar work with the mass media and acts as a forum for influencing the authorities.
   Contact Marcus Fuchs de ANDI, mfuchs@andi.org.br
   Gerardo Sauri Suárez of the Red, gerardo_sauri@hotmail.com
   
   
7. The young activists of MANTHOC (Lima, Perú) works to assure the right to decent and safe work. They also organise protests against exploitive entreprises and work with the police to enforce existing laws to protect workers.
   Contact Patricia Rivera, manthoc25@hotmail.com