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World Children’s Day

UEFA Child Safeguarding Newsletter, November 2021

Dear member,

On 20 November, we celebrate World Children’s Day – an occasion to advocate for, promote and celebrate children’s rights. On that day in 1959, the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. And on the same day in 1989, the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

This is the perfect moment to reiterate our commitment to respecting human rights and ensuring the welfare of children and young people in football at all levels of the game.

At UEFA, we strongly believe that all children and young people have a right to enjoy football in a safe and positive environment. Everybody who has contact with children and young people has a role to play in keeping them safe and upholding their rights.

UEFA recognises and will act on its responsibility to ensure respect, child protection and safeguarding, as well as upholding children’s and human rights and protecting the environment in a football context,” says Michele Uva, UEFA’s director of football and social responsibility.

Many of us work directly or indirectly with children in football settings. Part of our duty of care involves helping to prevent abuse, recognising, and tackling it, and ensuring that children feel safe and are protected. To be able to do this effectively, it is essential that we continuously acquire knowledge and skills in child safeguarding, as well as sharing experiences and best practices with others.

Together, we have already achieved a great deal. We have delivered a platform containing a range of specialist e-learning courses, news on safeguarding across the UEFA region and a library of other resources and good practices, and we have trained 54 national associations’ child safeguarding focal points.

Thank you!

We will continue to support member associations on this journey, and we are delighted to see the progress that has been made by so many in this regard. In January 2022, national associations’ child safeguarding focal points will be invited to an online networking event, where they will be able to exchange best practices and hear the latest news from experts in child safeguarding. We are also developing a new training course for recently appointed focal points. And finally, a new module is being prepared on involving children in our safeguarding efforts, since child participation is one of the core principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

To mark World Children’s Day, we are launching a social media campaign in cooperation with our partner, Terre des hommes (Tdh). That campaign aims to raise awareness of child safeguarding in football and encourages everyone to help keep children safe and football fun. Over the next two months, we will be regularly sharing educational messages on UEFA and TDH social media channels. 

Follow our channels and help us to spread the word!

UEFA:

Terre des hommes:
How are you celebrating World Children’s Day?

Let us know, and we will gladly share your initiatives on our platform, www.uefa-safeguarding.eu.
We take this opportunity to remind you that our online courses are available in EnglishFrenchGerman and Russian, as well as:
  • Dutch, courtesy of the Royal Belgian Football Association;
  • Romanian, courtesy of the Romanian Football Federation; and
  • Latvian (newly added), courtesy of the Latvian Football Federation.

Soon, courses will also be available in Polish and Portuguese, and adapted to the Swiss context (Italian, French and German). 

If your association would be interested in translating our e-courses into your official language(s), please contact childsafeguarding@uefa.ch.

Keep children safe and football fun!

Recommended resources 
 
The Football Federation of Armenia participates in the UEFA child safeguarding mentoring programme 

The Football Federation of Armenia (FFA) is one of the eleven UEFA member associations that were selected to participate in the UEFA child safeguarding mentoring programme.
 
Ukrainian Association of Football raises awareness on child safeguarding and builds capacity to protect minors in football 

Over the past six months, the Ukrainian Association of Football (UAF) has participated in the UEFA child safeguarding mentoring programme. 
 
The Latvian Football Federation translates the UEFA child safeguarding online courses into Latvian

The Latvian Football Federation (LFF) in cooperation with UEFA and the children’s aid organisation Terre des hommes launched the “For Safe Football” project to strengthen child safeguarding in football. Within the project, the UEFA online courses dedicated to this topic were translated into Latvian.
 
Webinar recording: Checking criminal records as a tool to protect children in sport

In the fight to protect children from sexual abuse, authorities and sports organisations are becoming more aware of the need to put necessary measures in place to provide a safe environment for young athletes.
 
Webinar recording: Gender dimension of the sale and sexual abuse and exploitation in sport of boys and children who identify outside of the gender binary

The Centre for Sports and Human Rights joins the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children in an event that follows the presentation of the Annual Thematic Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Sale and Exploitation of Children to the United Nations General Assembly.
 
Child protection in sport: information for parents [NSPCC Child Protection in Sport Unit]

Parents play an important role in their child’s sporting life, both when things are going well and by supporting them if something's wrong. The NSPCC Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU) has updated the information for parents on its website.
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Learn more about child safeguarding in European football:  
uefa-safeguarding.eu