Joint position paper on a comprehensive Child Rights strategy
The European Commission will launch a new EU Strategy on Child Rights in early 2021. European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen has entrusted the Vice President for Democracy and Demography to launch a comprehensive Child Rights Strategy. Terre des Hommes together with Brussels-based coalition CRAG (Child Rights Action Group) and UNICEF has developed a comprehensive joint position paper on the new EU strategy. This joint position paper has been endorsed by 28 organisations.
Leave no child behind
As a key principle, the Strategy should be aligned with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the promise of the UN 2030 Agenda to leave no child behind. It should be relevant for all children globally, paying attention to those in most vulnerable situations and facing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination. At the same time, the Strategy must be mandatory for all EU institutions, mainstreaming children’s rights in all internal and external EU policies, actions and programmes. To ensure its implementation, the Strategy must be action oriented, monitored, and properly financed by EU and national financial resources. Children should be an integral part of the design and implementation of the Strategy.
Mainstreaming children's rights
The priorities presented in the position paper are structured around the political guidelines of the 2019-2024 European Commission, making sure that children’s rights are mainstreamed in EU’s main priorities. Therefore, the position paper is calling on the EU Institutions for:
- An economy that works for children
- An inclusive approach to protecting children in accordance with EU fundamental rights
- A stronger Europe for all children in the world,
- Defending children’s rights in a world fit for the digital age
- A role for children in the European Green Deal,
- A new push for rights-based, meaningful, and inclusive child participation in European democracy.