Eurochild is celebrating the new EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child, published on 24 March 2021, a comprehensive and ambitious Strategy that represents a strong focus on the human rights of children and was developed with children. A child-friendly version was also launched informing children of how this Strategy aims to protect and promote the rights of every child in the EU.
The Strategy acknowledges the dominant threats and challenges that children’s rights face today, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, digital security, violence, poverty and social exclusion, and mental health. It includes measures to tackle these through key actions planned by the European Commission and by way of a variety of EU instruments and national policies. One such initiative is the creation of an EU Children Participation Platform encouraging Member States to establish new and improve existing mechanisms of child participation at local, regional, and national levels. This reinforces the strong message throughout that child participation is a right and must be promoted and improved across the EU.
This preliminary analysis was carried out by the Eurochild Secretariat and will be discussed and developed further with Eurochild members in the coming months. In order to best support its members in capitalising on this new EU framework document, Eurochild will be developing a guidance tool outlining how members can apply and refer to the Strategy to support their national advocacy goals, collaborate with national governments and children in its implementation, monitor and use EU funds to put the Strategy into practice and achieve tangible change for children in the EU.
