The European Commission adopted and unveiled on Wednesday 24 March a new strategy on children’s rights, reflecting “the rights and role of children in our society” and the “new realities and persistent challenges” they face, the institution summarised in its introduction.
The Commission has chosen to open this text with a chapter dedicated to children’s participation in political and democratic life: it commits itself to the fact that children will henceforth be invited to participate in the EU Fundamental Rights Forum, the 2021 edition of which should take place in Vienna on 11 and 12 October.
Commission Vice-President Dubravka Šuica, who oversaw the drafting of the strategy, stressed to the press on Wednesday—as she had done to MEPs in early March (see EUROPE 12676/9)—that the text had been drawn up “with children”.
“They are already leaders and activists”, Ms Šuica said during her presentation. They are “taking to the streets around the world to demand climate action”, the Commission recalls in the strategy.
The institution is therefore committed to ensuring that children in the EU are seen as active citizens and promises that child-specific consultations will now be carried out in future initiatives.
Online threats. Another aspect that is now necessary in the European approach to children’s rights is their protection on the Internet.
To prevent children from being exposed to illegal or harmful content online, the Commission recalls that it will adopt a revised version of its “Better Internet for Kids” strategy in 2022.
It also emphasises its willingness to adopt binding measures addressed to digital service providers to detect and report online child pornography content.
Violence. The text is not, however, limited to dealing with online violence. “One in five children in Europe will be a victim of some form of sexual violence, while children account for almost a quarter of all victims of trafficking in the EU—the majority being girls trafficked for sexual exploitation”, the strategy says.
One section of the text is also devoted to this issue, to which the Commission intends to respond in particular with a legislative proposal to combat violence against women and girls and a proposal for a recommendation on the prevention of practices harmful to women and girls, in particular genital mutilation. Two texts already announced as part of its strategy for gender equality.
Without giving further details, the institution also mentions the presentation of an “initiative” to support the strengthening of child protection systems. It also calls on Member States that have not yet done so to ban corporal punishment “in all settings”.
Education, health, social inclusion. Finally, the strategy addresses the issue of children’s equal access to education, health and the need to combat child poverty.
In the area of health, the Commission focuses on the difficulties related to mental health problems, which affect almost 20% of children worldwide, and calls on Member States to “identify children as a priority target group in their national mental health strategies”. On education, it is committed to presenting recommendations on e-learning and distance learning in primary and secondary education.
Finally, on child poverty, it highlights that 22.2% of children in the EU were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2019. “Depending on the Member State, the risk of poverty for children raised by a single parent, in families with three or more children, living in rural and remote areas of the EU, or with an immigrant or Romani background, is up to three times higher than for other children”, it says.
The main instrument mobilised by the institution to remedy this situation is a European guarantee against child poverty or ‘Child Guarantee’, presented alongside this strategy (see other news).
To consult it: https://bit.ly/3vWwQGb (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)