The Council of Europe’s New Strategy on the Rights of the Child (2022-2027) was Adopted by the Committee of Ministers
The Committee of Ministers adopted the new Strategy on the Rights of the Child (2022-2027) “Children’s rights in action: from continuous implementation to joint innovation”, which will guide the work of the Council of Europe for the next six years.
The new Strategy is the fourth in a series of Strategies aimed at making progress in protecting and promoting the rights of the child across Europe, under the Building a Europe for and with Children program, which has been in place since 2006. As part of the Organization’s long-standing commitment to putting the child at the heart of its work, the Strategy was developed through a large consultation process involving national governments, international organizations, civil society organizations and, last but not least, 220 children from 10 Member States.
The strategy sets out six strategic objectives:
- Eradicating violence for all children
- Equal opportunities and social inclusion for all children
- Access to safe use of technology for all children
- Juvenile justice for all children
- Giving a voice to every child
- Children’s rights in crisis and emergency situations
- The strategy will be launched in Rome on 7-8 April 2022 at a high-level conference organized jointly with the Italian Presidency of the Committee of Ministers to engage key stakeholders in the forthcoming six-year implementation process of the strategy.
The Steering Committee on the Rights of the Child (SCRC) of the Council of Europe is the main coordinating body that designs, implements and monitors the progress made under the Strategy, in cooperation with other Council of Europe bodies and international partner organizations.
Multi-stakeholder strategy requires clear and transparent reporting methods that can be easily understood and followed by stakeholders with a view to establishing synergies or developing partnerships when possible.
A communication network will be developed to promote the Strategy and the progress made, mainly through the website http://www.coe.int/children.
The current strategy is set for a 6-year period, which allows enough space for substantive activities, to monitor the implementation of the many listed goals and to assess their impact on children’s lives and in the institutional contexts in which they develop.
In addition to the action plans, which will be regularly updated with various partners involved in the implementation of the Strategy, the Logical Framework and its planning matrices, as set out in the Strategy, will be among the main working tools for monitoring the Strategy, technical, organizational and political level. An additional guarantee for the implementation of the Strategy is planned to take place through the Children’s Rights Department. Special forms will be developed and completed by Member States on a regular basis to report on any progress made by their countries, within different priority areas and types of action, as well as on specific indicators.
We will follow with great interest how the Bulgarian authorities will turn these strategies into concrete measures to ensure the rights of the child in Bulgaria. Hopefully, this international instrument will finally encourage the adoption of the Bulgarian Strategy for the Child – a strategic document, the adoption of which has been delayed for several years.
The full text of the Strategy can be found here.
Source: NGO portal
Photo: photl.com