The Council of Europe action in favour of children’s rights: helping professionals working with children make the best use of the available standards

The Council of Europe offers targeted action in its 47 member states to assist in increasing the protection of children’s rights. Its transversal programme “Building a Europe for and with Children” has focused on mainstreaming children’s rights into all policy areas and developing a holistic child-rights-based approach that is complementary to the United Nations agenda. New standards and policy guidelines have been drafted and adopted. The current strategy for the programme has the goal of promoting these standards and tools and assisting member states to translate, disseminate and implement them in practice. The four areas that are singled out for particular action under the current strategy are: to promote child-friendly services and systems; eliminate all forms of violence against children; guarantee the rights of children in vulnerable situations, and promote child participation. In response to the first action area, Guidelines are available for professionals to help them guarantee children’s effective access to and adequate treatment in justice. This tool is being used by the European Commission and the Fundamental Rights Agency in a study and research project. There are also Guidelines on child-friendly health care to help professionals adapt their working methods using a child-centred approach. A further standard is available on children’s rights and social services friendly to children and families for ensuring that children lacking or placed outside parental care are given adequate treatment. Other areas such as tools in favour of positive parenting and for increased knowledge of democratic citizenship and human rights education, including children’s rights education, have also been developed. Concerning the second area of action to eliminate all forms of violence against children, the main focus has been on combating sexual violence against children. The Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (Lanzarote Convention) is the key instrument to ensure that states have in place a solid legislative, institutional and practical framework to prevent and combat sexual violence against children. The Council of Europe ONE in FIVE Campaign to stop sexual violence against children (running until November 2015 and followed by a European Day (18 November) on the protection of children against sexual exploitation and sexual abuse), complements the awareness-raising efforts on this subject. Protecting children in vulnerable situations is multifaceted and is covered under the Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies 13 strategy via focused action targeting the rights of children at risk and in care, for which publications have been produced, such as “Discover your Rights!” (for children in care) and Securing Children’s Rights (for the professionals working with children in care). Children in detention and Roma children also figure among the groups of children singled out for deserving particular attention under this heading. Finally, child participation is an area to which the Council of Europe has turned its attention in support of the implementation of Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. It has just recently launched an Assessment Tool to assist member states in encouraging policy makers and professionals to involve children and to listen to their views. The Council of Europe’s programme is appropriately named in helping its member states to build a better environment upholding children’s rights. Introduction Throughout the last 60 years, the intergovernmental think-tank for Europe, the Council of Europe 1 has been at the forefront of promoting human rights, the rule of law and democracy. The Council of Europe’s now 47 member states have a wide geographical mandate to protect 800 million Europeans and they have pledged to co-operate and commit themselves to building a space where around 150 million children feel safe, happy and at home. The Council of Europe, through its strategies has prioritized children’s rights and attempted to ensure the effective and practical implementation of relevant standards in policy and in practice. The guiding principles underpinning all mainstreaming efforts can be found in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 2 as well as in the relevant Council of Europe standards 3 . The Council of Europe transversal programme “Building a Europe for and with children” 4 was launched in 2006 in response to a mandate resulting from the Third Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe (Warsaw 2005). The programme has been developed in order to promote implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in Europe and to provide assistance to Council of Europe member states in translating, disseminating and implementing its own helpful standards and tools. In order to achieve the desired effective implementation of existing children’s rights standards, the programme has grown via ‘strategy cycles’. These cover policy guidance and support to the member states in developing and implementing legal standards alongside promoting a holistic and integrated approach to children’s rights. The strategy cycles have given the programme direction, enabling measures to be identified to tackle challenges that children face, be they old or new. 1 Council of Europe (http://www.coe.int) 2 Convention on the Rights of the Child http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CRC.aspx 3 Council of Europe and Children’s Rights legal standards. http://www.coe.int/t/dg3/children/keyLegalTexts/Default_en.asp 4 http://www.coe.int/t/dg3/children/BriefDescription/Default_en.asp 14 The Council of Europe action in favour of children’s rights: Helping professionals working with children make the best use of available standards The current third Council of Europe Strategy on the Rights of the Child (2012-15) 5 proposes a vision for the Council of Europe’s role and action in this field, taking into account the progress achieved during the two previous cycles 6 , the needs expressed by governments and the challenges identified by the international community. The current strategy is the result of extensive consultations with governments, parliamentarians, key international organisations and civil society representatives. It is also based on an analysis of surveys and consultations conducted across Europe with children and young people. The overarching objective of the strategy is to implement standards based on four strategic pillars, namely: 1. promoting child-friendly services and systems; 2. eliminating all forms of violence against children; 3. guaranteeing the rights of children in vulnerable situations, and 4. promoting child participation. Thus the programme continues to mobilise and co-ordinate the contribution of all Council of Europe bodies and institutions, mainstream children’s rights into its monitoring bodies and human rights mechanisms, as well as into all of its policy areas and activities. Furthermore, the programme co-ordinates and consolidates partnerships with other international organisations, professional networks and civil society at large. With the ever-changing and adaptable working methods of the programme, children’s rights have been successfully mainstreamed into virtually all policy areas, and all Council of Europe institutions and bodies have contributed to this progress. Co-operation agreements with key external partners have been concluded in order to ensure coherence with other international organisations, in particular with UNICEF, the EU and the FRA. Civil society has provided solid support and is acting as a key multiplier and promoting Council of Europe standards with full support at ground level. Two three-year strategy cycles have been completed. The first strategy brought all actors together to determine the needs and define the vision. The second cycle saw the birth of several new key standards which are now being implemented in the third strategy cycle. This therefore demonstrates how a shared vision has been developed, which today is mobilising the pan-European continent. Today the Council of Europe is considered as one of the leading organisations in the field of children’s rights. One of the strengths of the children’s programme has been to constantly change and adapt to different needs, exploring new opportunities. This is an essential component in keeping up with a rapidly changing world. The programme must therefore change and adapt itself according to the environment that children grow up in, and it will continue to do so for the third strategy cycle and beyond. 5 http://www.coe.int/t/dg3/children/StrategyAdopted_en.asp 6 http://www.coe.int/t/dg3/children/News/200911Strategy_en.asp Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies 15 Making children’s rights a “reality” in Europe by supporting the effective implementation of the Strategy and Council of Europe standards The comprehensive and multi-sectorial approach of the Council of Europe in implementing children’s rights enables the organisation to support its member states by establishing a protective setting for all children in Europe. Strong preventive and promotional measures are set out according to the Council of Europe’s unique standards in this field, such as the Council of Europe Convention on the protection of children against sexual exploitation and sexual abuse (Lanzarote Convention) 7 . On behalf of its member states, the Council of Europe steers common action concerning European priority issues in this field. Among the areas that have received particular attention are: the fight against all forms of violence against children, the establishment of child-friendly justice systems to give children’s rights full recognition, and the support to parents and families as well as children in vulnerable situations including children in care. During the first two years of the strategy’s implementatio