A high-level launching conference for the strategy for the rights of the child (2022-2027) was co-organised by the Council of Europe and the Italian Presidency of the Committee of Ministers in Rome on 7-8 April 2022. This conference provided an opportunity for high-level representatives of member States and other international organizations to express their commitment to the Strategy and present their visions for the implementation of the rights of the child over the next six years. Participants also included Ombudspersons, civil society representatives and international children’s rights experts, as well as a number of young delegates from different Council of Europe Member States who had already contributed to the preparation of the Strategy. For all of them, the Conference was an opportunity to exchange on persistent and topical children’s rights challenges and provided guidance for the delivery of the Strategy by the Council of Europe and its member States.

Albania was duly represented by Mrs. Elona Gjebrea Hoxha, Executive Director of the Albanian Center for Population and Development (ACPD) supported by the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). Elona was a panelist of several sessions that addressed issues of healthcare services, comprehensive sexuality education curricula, reproductive health, and gender equality. She touched upon problems confronting Albania with regard to children’s rights and the work conducted by ACPD and other civil society organizations to address them. To allow for substantive and focused exchanges throughout, the Conference proposed a number of plenary sessions and four thematic sessions, each broken down into two parallel “deep dive conversations”, where participants were invited to enter into a moderated dialogue and jointly elaborated guidance for governmental and intergovernmental action to be taken.