On Monday 3 April in Luxembourg, EU Ministers for European Affairs signed up to the EU objective of strengthening child protection and children’s rights as an essential element in their human rights policy.
The Council conclusions adopted without debate directly correspond to the 2017 guidelines adopted on 6 March last, as a means of guiding the introduction of this universal sustainable development objective into the EU’s external policy (see EUROPE 11740).
Therefore, in the interest of children, a particularly vulnerable section of the population, the EU is committed to promoting gender equality, ensuring the empowerment of girls, mainstreaming the rights of the child in all sectors and in all programming, and encouraging partner countries to adopt a national strategy on the rights of the child. The conclusions reaffirm the EU's support for the work of relevant international and regional actors in the field of children's rights, in particular within the United Nations framework, to ensure that “No Child is left behind”. The EU reaffirms in writing, its active engagement in the processes protecting the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all refugee and migrant children. (Original version in French Aminata Niang)