Plan presses Europe to combat violence against children

Speakers at the hearing on child rights in the European Parliament

21 April 2008: Child rights was put on the agenda for the European Parliament in April when Plan organised a hearing to discuss new guidelines for national policies.

Together with UNICEF, Plan held the meeting at the European Parliament sub-committee on Human Rights on 14 April to urge the EU to take notice of the recommendations.

Called ‘Exchange of views on the promotion and protection of children’s rights in third countries’, the hearing featured speakers Professor Paolo Pinheiro, author of UN study Violence Against Children, Smiljana Knez of the Slovenian Presidency of the EU, Marta Santo Pais, director of the Innocenti Research Institute and Karen Schroh, Plan EU advocacy manager.

Protecting child rights

The ‘Guidelines on the promotion and protection on the rights of the child’ were adopted by the EU council in December 2007 and offer a holistic approach to protecting child rights.

All the speakers encouraged the European Parliament to ensure member countries take up the guidelines and use them in their policies.

Mr Pinheiro praised the EU for working with the UN on child rights but said countries should ensure that violence against children was included in political dialogues and debates.

Child participation

Plan’s Karen Schroh addressed the hearing on behalf of the Brussels-based Child Protection in Crisis – a group of child rights non-governmental organisations that follow policy making at EU level.

She spoke of lessons learnt from previous guidelines on children and armed conflict and called upon the European Parliament to ensure the participation of children in EU policy-making.

Download the Guidelines on the promotion and protection on the rights of the child from the Council of the the European Union website.

Find out about Plan's new global Learn Without Fear campaign, which will be launched in October 2008.