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Reply to Recommendation | Doc. 15019 | 18 December 2019
Stop violence against, and exploitation of, migrant children
1. The Committee of
Ministers has carefully examined Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 2160 (2019) entitled “Stop violence against, and exploitation of,
migrant children” which it forwarded to the Ad hoc Committee for
the Rights of the Child (CAHENF), to the Group of Experts on Action
against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA), to the Committee of
the Parties of the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection
of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (CETS No.
201, “Lanzarote Convention”), to the Steering Committee for Human
Rights (CDDH) and to the European Committee on Legal Co-operation (CDCJ),
for information and possible comments.
2. The Committee of Ministers welcomes the work of the Parliamentary
Assembly and acknowledges the importance of this recommendation
underlining the serious risks that children face in the context
of migration. The Committee of Ministers is acutely aware of the
vulnerability of migrant children and the need to ensure their protection
from all types of violence and exploitation. It considers it important
that work in this area continues and supports the activities carried
out by relevant committees and monitoring mechanisms.
3. In its recommendation, the Assembly calls on the Committee
of Ministers to act with regard to three issues. The first (paragraph
6.1) relates to the guidelines on guardianship and age assessment
prepared in order to provide appropriate safeguards for children
in the context of migration. In this respect, the Committee of Ministers
informs the Assembly that the Recommendation CM/Rec(2019)11 on effective guardianship for unaccompanied and separated
children in the context of migration was adopted by the Committee
of Ministers on 11 December 2019. With respect to the draft guidelines
on age assessment, by the Ad hoc Committee for the Rights of the
Child is undertaking consultations in order to complete its work
and be able to transmit the text to the Committee of Ministers for
consideration in 2020. Following the adoption by the Committee of Ministers
of the respective texts, the Committee of Ministers will invite
the relevant committees and bodies within the Organisation to promote
them among the member States.
4. In paragraph 6.2 of its recommendation, the Assembly calls
on the Committee of Ministers to ask the Steering Committee for
Human Rights (CDDH) to consider the possibility of developing European
standards for non-custodial reception centres for migrant children.
In this respect, the Committee of Ministers informs the Assembly
that, as part of its terms of reference for 2020-2021, the CDDH
will be entrusted with examining the issue of alternative family-based
care for unaccompanied and separated children. The particularly
vulnerable situation of these children will be the backdrop for
this work, which could, as appropriate, provide a basis on which
the suggestion put forward by the Assembly in paragraph 6.2. could
be considered in due course.
5. Finally, in response to paragraph 6.3, the Committee of Ministers
calls on the member States that are Parties to the Lanzarote Convention
and have not yet done so to take action to comply with the recommendations
of the Lanzarote Committee’s special report entitled “Protecting
children affected by the refugee crisis from sexual exploitation
and sexual abuse”. It recalls that the recommendations in this special report
are in line with the legislative measures and policy implementation
recommended by the Parliamentary Assembly in Resolution 2295 (2019) (see paragraphs 8.1 and 8.2). The report also provides
a series of good practices from which States may draw inspiration.
The Committee of Ministers recalls that an evaluation
of the follow-up given by the Parties concerned to the recommendations
of this special report is currently underway.
6. The Committee of Ministers would also draw attention to the
Declaration of the Lanzarote Committee on protecting migrant and
refugee children against sexual exploitation and sexual abuse
7. The Committee of Ministers would finally signal Guideline
13 of the Guidelines on the implementation of the Optional Protocol
to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children,
Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, adopted in June 2019 by
the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which encourages
States to have specific consideration, inter
alia, for migrant children.