Veronica Yates, Managing Director of the Rights Studio and outgoing Director of Child Rights International Network – CRIN

Veronica Yates is outgoing Director of the Child Rights International Network – CRIN, where she worked for over 20 years. Her firm commitment to rights, not charity for children laid the foundations for CRIN’s recent transformation: from a business-as-usual NGO to a radical new way of operating and behaving, with at its core, the central question which all NGOs should be asking themselves: do we really need to exist? This led CRIN to adopt its very own Code, which sets out the principles that guide the work and how we should behave as human rights organisations. 

Veronica believes that small, focused organisations can make a disproportionate impact by working collectively with unusual suspects; it’s not about growing, it’s about networking better. To this end, she is exploring new ways of working with artists, writers, activists, environmental campaigners and children and young people. This led her to co-found her new organisation, The Rights Studio, which is based in Berlin, Germany.

Veronica has travelled extensively with CRIN and other organisations. She was Co-­chair of the International NGO Council on violence against children, held several board positions, including the Right to Education Initiative, Child Soldiers International, The Global Initiative to End Corporal Punishment, and Child Rights Connect, and is a member of the Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch’s Child Rights Division.