The Foundation for Access to Rights – FAR is the leading organization in the Safeguarding Unaccompanied and Separated Children’s Rights through the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (SUN), funded by the Citizens, equality, rights, and values (CERV) Program of the European Commission, which started on April 1, 2023, and will be implemented for 24 months. Partners in the project are ARSIS, Greece; Tdh, Romania; NIDOS, the Netherlands; Sirius Network (International network, based in Belgium); Volontarius, Italy and CCAR, Spain.

The SUN project aims at promoting the effective enjoyment of rights stipulated in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights by unaccompanied and separated refugee and migrant children. 

Unaccompanied and separated migrant and refugee children (UASCs) are a highly vulnerable group, especially to rights breaches, being removed from their home and normal context, having experienced traumatic events, having gone through multiple procedures, being separated from their parents/ primary caregivers or other significant adults.

The project targets all people working with or involved in caring for unaccompanied and separated refugee children, namely: lawyers, working in the field of legal representation of unaccompanied and separated refugee and migrant children; guardians; civil society organisations and independent human rights bodies representatives; social workers and frontline workers dealing with refugee and migrant children in various settings; school teachers, headmasters of schools and their associations, migrant and refugee communities and their associations, parents and family members from the refugee and migrant communities in the partner countries; university students. The project foresees providing basic knowledge about the Charter guaranteed rights of unaccompanied and separated refugee and migrant children and how the rights are translated into the practices and everyday work with the children to frontline workers and professionals involved in caring for them. Legal experts will have access to advanced knowledge about conducting lawsuits of strategic importance to the rights of unaccompanied and separated refugee and migrant children. 

The project partners will:                                            

• conduct a training needs assessment and identification and analysis of good practices; 

• be involved in a mentoring programme and a series of study exchange visits among partners to build their capacity;

• develop a curriculum and a training handbook for professionals and practitioners on the rights of unaccompanied and separated refugee and migrant children related to the EU Charter;

• carry out events to present the training and the Handbook to national stakeholders;

• conduct an international train-the-trainer event featuring trainers from the Hungarian Helsinki Committee;

• carry out national trainings for professionals and practitioners (in Bulgaria the project foresees trainings in Sofia and Pazardzhik).

The closing activities of the project will be held in Sofia, Bulgaria, in the beginning of 2025. They will include a seminar whose participants will be professionals and experts from the whole European Union and a closing exchange visit of the project partners.

The closing activities of the project will be held in Sofia, Bulgaria, in the beginning of 2025. They will include a seminar whose participants will be professionals and experts from the whole European Union and a closing exchange visit of the project partners.

SUN NEWSLETTER

• JULY 2023