2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the landmark United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), and a conference was held on November 20th at the European Parliament to commemorate this child’s rights standard, the most widely ratified international human rights treaty in history. Much of the conference consisted of reflections on the progress of the past thirty years and the challenges that persist in the realm of international child’s rights issues, especially as the world becomes further globalised and digital.
The UNCRC codifies the civil, political, social, cultural, and economic rights of every child regardless of ethnicity, religion, or ability. As well as enshrining the child’s right to have their best interests considered, the UNCRC most specifically addresses the issue of children with an imprisoned parent—and thus the advocacy work that Children of Prisoners Europe (COPE) does—at Article 9(3), where it commits states to respecting the right of children separated from one or both parent(s) to maintain parental relationships through personal contact on a regular basis.
Participants at the conference heard from experts and children who shared their views on current challenges. Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, the former President of Malta who and current Eurochild President, named the primary obstacles currently facing the world’s children as being poverty, migration and disability. Taking these ideas further, David Maria Sassoli, President of the European Parliament, noted that issues of child’s rights are inextricable from violence, poverty and limits to education, and thus linked to the achievement of the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Lucy Nethsingha, Chair of the Parliament’s Committee on legal affairs, added that the 2030 SDGs call for a world with more child protection.
Vera Jourovà, European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, was one of few conference speakers to call for improving the situation of Roma children, noting that even young children are treated as second-class citizens in certain contexts. She emphatically stated that contact with justice must not be traumatic for children, and observed that the onus is on legislators, sentencers and officers of the law to respect the rights and opinions of children when they come into contact with systems of justice, a responsibility that the European Commission shares tin promoting child-friendly justice. The Commission currently provides financial support for judicial training and held an April 2019 forum centring good practice and the inclusion of child participation.
Continuing in the same vein, Michael O’Flaherty, Director of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, discussed his agency’s finding that Europe’s justice systems currently tend towards ‘child-unfriendly justice’, and that governments need to make strides towards the implementation of EU human rights law, especially through investment in training programmes. Charlotte Petri Gornitzka, UNICEF’s Deputy Director, also spoke to the importance of child-friendly inclusions in justice systems across Europe, emphasising the need for new and ambitious strategies on child rights. She indicated the work of the office of the Ombudsman in Croatia as being particularly strong on this front.
Sioda (age 14) from the Eurochild Children’s Council, called for real and lasting children’s rights change with better legislation towards rights protection. She restated the responsibility that adults have, as codified under the UNCRC, to respect the views of children and to take them into consideration when making decisions.