Name: Marlo Hulnick

Social Justice Group: Child Soldiers

Date of Fieldwork: February 21, 2018

Name of Organization: United Nations, UNICEF, Child Soldiers International, NGO’s, Government Diplomats

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles:

Type of Fieldwork: Attending a Confrence

What I did:

Our group went to the OPAC Turns 18 Conference at the United Nations. OPAC is The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This basically means that they work to protect children from being recruited into armed conflict. The conference had multiple panels that reflected on the work from all different countries and organizations from the past 18 years.

What I learned:

I learned about the efforts of different countries that have the goal of getting rid of child soldiers and what the governments have done to this day and what they are planning to do. We also learned similar information from Prime Ministers and Ministers that were representing different governmental organizations. Amongst learning about these actions, I learned lots of facts and statistics in the panel’s opening speeches. I also learned about different Action Plans that have been put in place throughout the years. Lastly, I learned about how girls are represented in this injustice.

What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:

I learned that social justice work doesn’t have to be hands on. You don’t just have to volunteer to take action, there are other ways. For this fieldwork I went to an informative meeting where I heard people talking about the past steps, the next steps, and so much more. This is just as much as civil rights work from the next thing, and that’s an important thing that I learned. If you want to help, you don’t just have to do something hands-on. Something even more powerful is learning about the issue and spreading awareness. By going to the conference I really learned what being an activist means.