On the 30th Anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, representatives of the UAE Government, and the Child Dignity Alliance are hosting a joint meeting, bringing together major decision makers from the stakeholder groups of academia, government, technology, finance, civil society and religion, to discuss and commit to the concrete action needed to protect children in the digital world. Click here for the official press release.

The Interfaith Alliance for Safer Communities seeks to unite religious leaders from around the world, through a series of bi-annual forums and global workshops, in order to foster dialogue and take action to address important social challenges. The first, invitation-only forum will be held in Abu Dhabi on November 19 and 20, 2018. Entitled “The Interfaith Alliance for Safer Communities: Child Dignity Online,” the forum will bring together the world’s religious leaders to address the issue of online child abuse, a global epidemic which requires urgent attention. For more information visit the Interfaith Alliance’s website here.

On November 7 and 8, Microsoft will host a two-day event co-sponsored by the WePROTECT Global Alliance in conjunction with the Child Dignity Alliance to unveil and discuss new efforts led by Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter and Snapchat to combat child sexual exploitation (CSE) online.

The program, “Preventing online child grooming: Working together for maximum impact,” is taking place alongside Microsoft’s “360 Cross-Industry Hackathon” focused on combatting child online grooming for sexual purposes. The Hackathon brings together three distinct, yet inter-related hack teams to address key aspects of online child grooming:  technical and engineering; legal and policy, and operations.

The events will feature UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid, a member of the U.S. Department of Justice, representatives of member tech companies, Dr Hany Farid, John Shehan of NCMEC, Julie Inman Grant the Australian e-Safety Commissioner, Adam Hildreth of CRISP and Einat Clarke of Facebook. For a full description of the event, read Microsoft Chief Online Safety Officer Jacqueline Beauchere’s blog piece here.

Exactly one year after the World Congress “Child Dignity in the Digital World,” which closed on 6 October 2017 with the presentation of the Declaration on Child Dignity in the Digital World at a papal audience, the Centre for Child Protection (CCP) of the Pontifical Gregorian University launches its Licentiate in Safeguarding, a two-year master’s degree program in safeguarding.

To launch the Licentiate in Safeguarding, on Friday 5th October morning, Reinhard Cardinal Marx, Archbishop of Munich, will celebrate Mass at the Pontifical Gregorian University. The liturgical celebration will be followed by three conference talks, given by Cardinal Marx; Prof. Elizabeth J.

Letourneau, Director of the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA); and Major Dana Humaid, Director of the Project Management and Shared Services Office, Acting Director of the Child Protection Centre (General Secretariat of the Ministry of Interior, UAE). Afterwards, a reception will be offered for the attendees, who hail from various countries.

After the reception, a press conference will take place, with the participation of Cardinal Marx, Prof. Elizabeth J. Letourneau, Major Dana Humaid, and Fr. Hans Zollner SJ (the Gregorian’s Academic Vice Rector and CCP President), in order to present the core vision and aims of the Licentiate in Safeguarding.

The following day, Saturday 6th October evening, in the Church of St. Ignatius, the artistic première of “Transformation – a musical performance dedicated to the victims of abuse,” composed by Konstantia Gourzi and produced by the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, will feature the children’s choir of the Bavarian State Opera, the musicians of the Bavarian State Orchestra, and dancers.