Children’s rights

Save the children has published a new report titled “Child Poverty and Social Exclusion – A matter of children’s rights”. The document urges European Union (EU) institutions, member states and policy makers to place children’s rights at the centre of their agenda, by acknowledging child poverty as a deprivation of their fundamental rights.

The INAS Open European Athletics Championships took place between 11 and 15 June, in the Netherlands. The competition is an International Paralympic Committee sanctioned event, bringing together over 150 athletes with intellectual disabilities from up to 20 countries world-wide.

Inclusion Europe joined the International Coalition for Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (OPCRC) on a Communications Procedure (also called OP3 CRC). The OP3 CRC is a United Nations (UN) international treaty which allows children to ask for justice at the international level by introducing a special communication procedure for this purpose.

Inclusive education will be the focus of the 2014 Global Action Week entitled ‘Equal Right, Equal Opportunity: Education and Disability’. The event, scheduled for 4-10 May is organised by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE), a broad civil society coalition advocating for free and compulsory, quality public basic education for all children.

Twenty European networks working with children and families announced the creation of the ‘EU Alliance for Investing in Children’.

It is positive to see the European Council calling for “stepping up efforts to reach the Europe 2020 targets”. This supports the request of employment and social affairs ministers during their EPSCO meeting last week to “strengthen their efforts to reduce poverty”.

The Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure will enter into force on 14 April 2014, three months after its ratification by 10th country - Costa Rica. The Protocol will enable children to bring their complaints of human rights violations before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

Eurochild published its assessment of the third European Commission’s 2012 Report on the application of the EU Charter on Fundamental Rights. Eurochild concluded that the report failed to provide overall comprehensive picture of the situation regarding children’s rights in Europe.

On 16 October 2013, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted Recommendation CM/Rec(2013)2 on ensuring full inclusion of children and young persons with disabilities into society. Inclusion Europe welcomes the Recommendation which brings the attention of the European governments towards better implementation of the rights of children and young people with disabilities.

Inclusion Europe embarked on a new project on child participation and is looking for your input. The project “Hear our Voices!” aims to strengthen and increase the direct participation of children with intellectual disabilities, one of the guiding principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.