Students Engage on Child Rights and Resilience

The Collaborative Forum

June 14, 2026

Students Engage on Child Rights and Resilience

As part of the Collaborative on Global Children’s Issues’ 2026 Child Rights and Resilience course, students explored some of the most pressing challenges facing children in adversity around the world.

For their final assignment, students selected a child rights issue and considered how evidence and lived experience can inform more effective action for children. Drawing on research, policy analysis, practitioner insights, and lived experience, they examined a range of issues, including child labor, disability inclusion in refugee settings, migration, school meal programs, conflict, and child marriage.

The resulting blog articles reflect the course’s emphasis on understanding children not only as subjects of policy but as individuals whose rights, well-being, and resilience are shaped by the systems around them. Taken together, they highlight the shared structural drivers shaping children’s lives across contexts, as well as pathways toward more inclusive, effective, and child-centered responses.

Responses

Beyond Survival: Rethinking Child Protection in Conflict from Northern Nigeria to Ukraine

Japhet Osuji (G'27), Student Fellow, Collaborative on Global Children's Issues | June 14, 2026

Unraveling the Web of Child Marriage in Pakistan

Jasmine Rehman (G'26), Graduate, Walsh School of Foreign Service | June 14, 2026

When Inclusion Falls Short: Children With Disabilities in Za’atari Refugee Camp

Lía Butanda (G'27), Graduate Student, Walsh School of Foreign Service | June 14, 2026

South Korea’s Evolving Approach to Undocumented Children: Expanding Pathways to Adulthood and Future Directions

Katherine Yehyun Kim (G'26), Graduate Student, Walsh School of Foreign Service | June 13, 2026

From Fragmentation to Coordination: Combating Child Labor in West African Cocoa

Rachel Kern (G'26), Graduate, Walsh School of Foreign Service | June 13, 2026

How One Rural Taiwanese School Rethinks Nourishment

Samantha Chai (G'27), Graduate Student, Walsh School of Foreign Service | June 13, 2026

About the Blog

The Collaborative Forum is a blog that convenes practitioners, policymakers, researchers, students, and other stakeholders to consider the most pressing issues facing children worldwide. It features child-centered content grounded in research, policy, practice, and the lived experiences of children, families, and communities.

The Collaborative Forum includes:

Commentary and analysis from practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and advocates working across child rights, child protection, early childhood development, youth engagement, migration, and related fields.
Student perspectives on critical issues affecting children and youth worldwide through a lens of research, policy analysis, and lived experience.
Perspectives on children affected by conflict, including the experiences of Ukrainian children impacted by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the forced deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children.
Special forums and thematic series that bring together diverse perspectives on urgent challenges facing children, including the Forum on Faith and the Family, which explored the role of Christian faith communities in both the propagation and prevention of child-family separation; Innovating Protection for Children on the Move Across the Americas, which examined emerging approaches to protecting children and families in contexts of migration; and the Breakthrough Series Collaborative Forum, which convened stakeholders to address pressing issues in child protection, early childhood development, and the well-being of children on the move.