European strategy for children
Doc. 7473[1]
23 January 1996
OPINION
Rapporteur: Mrs ERR, Luxembourg, Socialist Group
I. INTRODUCTION
1. The Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights would first of all like to congratulate the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee and Unicef on the speed, efficiency and high standard of their work.
2. This European strategy for children is in line with a complete redefinition of the protection of the child which has been in progress in the Council of Europe since it was initiated by the Parliamentary Assembly five years ago.
3. The existence of many legal instruments geared to protecting children and enshrining increasingly sophisticated rights[2], means that it is now more urgent than ever to adopt an overall strategy to guide the action of the individual states. As the Rapporteur, Mr Cox, points out, "additional action is necessary. ... The aim of such a strategy is to inspire action and policies at international and national level and to guide the efforts of all those who actively support children's causes".
4. However, beyond the need to harmonise national measures, which are, more often than not, piecemeal and contradictory, the first step must be to change attitudes, "the way children ... are viewed" (paragraph 4 of the draft recommendation).
II. REDEFINING THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN
5. The Council of Europe has always paid very special attention to the whole are of family affairs and children[3]. Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 1121 (1990) on the rights of the child was a turning point in this field, because it finally established the principle that children have rights which they can exercise independently (see Mrs Ekman's report, presented by the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights).
6. The recent European Convention on the Exercise of Children's Rights, which is to open for signature on 25 January 1996 on the occasion of the Assembly session, is the immediate response to the concerns set out in Recommendation 1121 about improving and expediting proceedings before the ordinary courts involving the interests of children. Its object "is, in the best interests of children, to promote their rights, to grant them procedural rights and to facilitate the exercise of these rights by ensuring that children are, themselves or through other persons or bodies, informed and allowed to participate in proceedings affecting them before a judicial authorities" (Article 1).
7. However, family structures, marriage and relations between parents and children have undergone radical change in many countries. In Europe, more children than ever are living in high-risk situations. Children are suffering serious physical or mental ill-treatment: they undergo racial discrimination, prostitution and violence, and also suffer the negative effects of the media. Such emergency situations alone are sufficient to force us to redefine our political objectives, and to give child welfare higher priority than ever in the Council of Europe.
III. THE OBJECTIVES OF THE STRATEGY
8. The draft recommendation in Mr Cox's report clearly sets out five objectives, to which the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights subscribes completely. Some of them already appear in Assembly Resolution 1011 (1993) and Recommendation 1121:
1. Early ratification and implementation of international instruments, including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989 and the Council of Europe's new European Convention on the Exercise of Children's Rights (paragraph 6).
2. The methodology to be adopted by national authorities in children's policies (paragraph 7):
9. The main idea is to "make children's rights a political priority" and "consider the best interests of the child as a guiding principle of all action". This concept must be seen in the light of Resolution 1011 (1993), in which the Assembly invited member and non-member states to subscribe to the principle of "First call for children".
10. Since proper protection cannot be provided for individuals with rights unless their needs are ascertained, children must be regarded as a subject for study in their own right, not by reference to their parents. Systematic data gathering can give children a conceptual autonomy, and thus enable activities to be co-ordinated and data exchanged between states for the purposes of comparison.
11. We must also ensure that every political decision really does take account of children's interests, inter alia in fields which do not directly affect them but which could indirectly influence them (the principle of the "child impact statement", paragraph 7.v).
12. Some other provisions of the draft recommendation stipulate different ways of effectively safeguarding the principle of "priority for children": encouraging co-ordination at governmental level by means of a comprehensive multidisciplinary approach (paragraph 7.iii), meeting the basic needs of children and dissuading governments from reducing funding for social prevention programmes (paragraphs 7.vi and 7.vii), etc.
13. The appointment of a commissioner (ombudsman) (paragraph 7.iv) has already been mentioned in various texts (for example the Ekman report and Recommendation 1121). In 1985 the Committee of Independent Experts of the European Social Charter stressed "the importance of a commissioner (ombudsman) for children because such an official can act on his/her own initiative or be directly applied to by those concerned". The wording used in paragraph 7.iv is perhaps too reminiscent of the Norwegian ombudsman model, which is appropriate for Norway as a small homogeneous country with a long democratic tradition, but might be unsuited to the needs of other states.
14. Nevertheless, the introduction of such an institution is an original, and essential, solution for many states, and presupposes the necessary guarantees on its independence, particularly with regard to appointment procedures. In the case of very large countries, local ombudsmen would also be useful, although they would remain subject to national supervision.
3. The child protection policy which must be adopted
15. While the provision on the explicit recognition in states' domestic law of children's civil and political rights is a logical one, since the 1989 Convention is not directly applicable in certain states, it may nevertheless be regretted that the strategy makes a distinction between civil and political rights on the one hand and economic, social and cultural rights on the other, probably because the latter are not enforceable by the courts. This distinction, however, is unjustified as the 1989 Convention is a comprehensive text not establishing any hierarchy between both categories of rights. It would thus go against its spirit, but also run counter to Recommendation 1121[4], to apply this restrictive distinction at national level.
16. Paragraph 8 of the draft recommendation includes various provisions centred on four themes:
a. Information (8.iii, 8.v and 8.vi)
17. These provisions on the providing to children of information about their rights, the training of professionals and the informing of children about the remedies available to them are essential: if children's rights are to be given effect, children must be informed of those rights. The publicising of children's rights is a first step to increase public awareness and promote change in the traditional view of the child. This is why parents and families must also be targeted.
b. Education (8.ii, 8.viii and 8.ix)
18. The wording of paragraph 8.ii may be misleading, as it may give the impression that education is of high quality if it is free, so it needs amending.
c. Participation (8.vii)
19. This provision follows on directly from Assembly Recommendation 1019 (1985), which emphasises that young people's effective participation is important if democracy is to survive, and it does not call for any particular comments. Participation in the life of society is a way of exercising citizenship and makes a crucial contribution to learning to live in a democracy.
d. The media (8.iv)
20. Recommendation 874 (1979) previously raised the issue of the danger ("public display of violence, criminality and terrorism in the mass media") which the media may involve, and future Council of Europe discussions of the subject should take more account of the new information and communications technologies, which entail a need for stronger measures to protect young people.
21. Child protection policy would nevertheless be incomplete without a specific reference to the situation of immigrant and refugee children, whose numbers are now greater than ever in Europe. The uprooting, disturbance and insecurity inherent in immigrants' and refugees' situation may be detrimental to children's physical, intellectual, psychological, cultural and social development. In the light of Assembly Recommendation 1074 (1988) and the 1989 Convention, member states must be encouraged to adopt specific measures to help immigrant and refugee children to integrate into the host society, especially by guaranteeing them equal access to all social services, to education and to participation.
4. International co-operation
22. This part, mainly covering financial assistance for developing countries, calls for no particular comments.
5. The setting up of a permanent structure at the Council of Europe
23. This new structure must make a positive contribution to improving childhood policies in central and eastern Europe. It could put forward proposals for the setting up in eastern Europe of social assistance programmes, and encourage the implementation of family reunification strategies, following on from Assembly Order No 491 (1993), from which this strategy stems. More than any others, the countries of central and eastern Europe which are in transition must meet the growing needs of their children, particularly in the educational and social spheres.
24. Finally, the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights wishes to emphasise the efforts which should be made for promoting legal aid for children in Europe.
IV. DRAFT AMENDMENTS
The Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights can but enthusiastically endorse the draft recommendation and draft order on a European strategy for children presented by the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee (Doc. 7436). It nevertheless invites the Assembly to support the following amendments:
1. Amendments to the draft recommendation [link to adopted text]
Amendment No. 1
Replace paragraph 7.iv with the following:
"by appointing a commissioner (ombudsman) for children or another structure offering guarantees of independence, and the responsibilities required to improve children's lives, and accessible to the public through such means as local offices."
Amendment No. 2
Add at the end of paragraph 7.v:
"for example, in the field of legal aid".
Amendment No. 3
In paragraph 8.i, add after "children's civil and political" the words:
"as well as their economic, social and cultural".
Amendment No. 4
In paragraph 8.ii, replace the words "a high level of education through the free provision" with:
"at a high level in free education".
Amendment No. 5
In paragraph 8.iii, add before "their rights" the words:
"but also their parents".
Amendment No. 6
In paragraph 8, insert the sub-paragraph below between sub-paragraphs ix and x:
"to pay particular attention to the situation and the specific needs of immigrant and refugee children".
Amendment No. 7
Add at the end of sub-paragraph 10.ii:
"This report will be the subject of an annual discussion by the competent committee of the Parliamentary Assembly".
2. Amendment to the draft order [link to adopted text]
Add a fourth and final paragraph worded as follows:
"The Assembly also instructs its Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, in close co-operation with the Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee, to pursue its study of the problems associated with children's rights in judicial proceedings, especially in the field of legal aid, in view of providing guidelines."
Reporting committee: Social, Health and Family Affairs Committee
Committee for opinion: Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Reference to committee: Doc 6838 and Reference 1871 of 5 June 1993
Opinion approved by the committee on 23 January 1996
Secretaries to the committee: Mr Plate, Ms Chatzivassiliou and Mrs Kleinsorge
[1]. by the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights
[2]. 1924 Declaration of the Rights of the Child by the League of Nations, 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Articles 25 and 26), 1959 Declaration of the Rights of the Child by the United Nations, 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 24), 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1967 European Convention on the Adoption of Children, 1975 European Convention on the Legal Status of Children born out of Wedlock, 1980 European Convention on Recognition and Enforcement of Decisions concerning Custody of Children and on Restoration of Custody of Children, 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which came into force on 2 September 1990 and recognises children as individuals with rights, and the European Charter on the Rights of the Child (European Parliament Resolution of 1992).
[3]. Recommendation 874 (1979) on a European Charter on the Rights of the Child, Recommendation 1019 (1985) on the participation of young people in political and institutional life, Recommendation 1071 (1988) on child welfare and Recommendation 1074 on family policy.
[4]. Paragraph 13.C: a future additional protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights must embody "not only the civil and political rights of children but also their economic and social rights".