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Dear E4J network,

We hope that you and your families are doing well in these unprecedented times, which indeed call for unprecedented measures. The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting us and our responsibility to be safe and ensure that others can be safe too remains our priority. Human life comes first and foremost. Physical distancing reinforces the need for solidarity across the world, our communities and networks.

All aspects of life and society are impacted by this crisis. In the area of education, 165 countries have implemented country-wide school and university closures, as indicated by the UN Secretary General in his report entitled “Shared responsibility, global solidarity: Responding to the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19”. More than 1.52 billion children and youth are currently out of school or university, representing 87% of the world's enrolled school and university student population. In addition, nearly 60.2 million teachers are no longer in the classroom.

Barbara Kalinina, 11 years, Russia: artwork

Daniel Hsuan, 17 years, China: music

This situation creates many challenges, such as interrupted learning and the lack of human interaction for youth, which is essential to their social and behavioural development. Moreover, additional pressure is put on teachers and parents to support learning at home. Like most UN colleagues, the E4J team is also working from home and our E4J events are taking new forms to replace the traditional face-to-face events.

However, this crisis also creates new opportunities and could trigger innovation and creativity to overcome the challenges we are facing as a global community.

For this reason, we invited the voices of E4J’s champions – children and youth - to share their responses to the COVID-19 global crisis. Through their artwork, creative writing and music, Aishar Taimur, 11 years old from Japan, Barbara Kalinina, 11 years old from Russia, Naomi Oloyede, 12 years old from Nigeria, and Daniel Hsuan, 17 years old from China, all winners of the 2019 Youth Competition held in the margins of the E4J High-Level Conference, show us how to be "Champions of the Rule of Law" during the social distancing period.

With these creative contributions, E4J would like to inspire other children and young people to promote a culture of lawfulness and thus ensure continuous learning even outside of the classroom.

We are a strong team, a creative network, a talented E4J family. It has never been as important to be connected with each other, particularly with you from different parts of the world, representing the diversity and also beauty of our planet. The E4J network is particularly relevant in such times and the sharing of our experiences, ideas and good practices will enable the development of new ways of working and achieving lasting and sustainable impact. We are increasingly using digital technologies to continue E4J work, to further engage educators, children and youth on issues at the heart of their everyday lives, namely: the rule of law, crime prevention and criminal justice.

The artwork in Aishar's words

Webinars, social media campaigns, partnerships with various online platforms and online competitions are some of the activities we are currently developing and elaborating to further support continuous learning on and youth engagement for the rule of law. Register here to help us keep the E4J network active, innovative, forward-thinking and empathic! If you have an idea or a question, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. Don’t forget to browse our website and share E4J resources with others.

Let’s make this our joint mission today and every day, #NeverStopLearning

Take care & stay safe,

The E4J team