The Annual EU-NGO forum will take place from 6th July to 7th July in Sweden and the Main Focus is on Violence Against Children.
The Annual EU-NGO Forum brings together around 150 delegates from non-governmental organisations, International organisations, EU member states and European institutions.

The 2009 Forum will be dedicated to child rights with a special focus on violence against children, a priority for the swedish presidency and relevant since the international community celebrates the 20th anniversary of adoption of the UN convention on the rights of the Child this year.

The conlusions and recommendations from the forum will be presented at the council of EU Working Group on Human Rights (COHOM) and assembled into a report.

On the 16th of June 2008, Ministry of Gender,Labour and Social Development in collaboration with UCRNN launched the Child Participation Guide; a document supposed to guide all stake holders dealing with children , on how to involve children in matters affecting them.

Subsequent to the launch, UCRNN with support from UNICEF and KNH embarked on training child actors in 14 districts about how to apply the principle of child participation so as to create an enabling environment for children within institutions and communities. The training mainly targets districts and subcounty officials, repesentatives from civil society organisations etc. .
So far, a total of 8 districts have benefited from the trainings.

Aware that the strength of UCRNN lies in the membership, thematic groups have proved to be an invaluable forum for collective advocacy for children. The thematic groups provide a platform for members to engage in policy advocacy at all levels. For the period July 2007-July 2008, the network’s advocacy agenda will focus on six thematic areas:

• Children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS
• Children with Disabilities
• Children affected by armed conflict
• Education and Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE)
• Child trafficking
• Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation (CSAE)