19/10/05: A topic of discussion between Zuzana Roithova, Marie Panayotopoulos - Cassiotou, José Ribeiro e Castro and Commissionner Spidla.Yesterday afternoon (19/10/05) Zuzana Roithova (Czech Republic), Marie Panayotopoulos - Cassiotou (Greece) and José Ribeiro e Castro (Portugal), EPP-ED Members of the European Parliament, met the Czech Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs Vladimir Spidla to discuss the difficulties encountered by large families in various fields and gave him an overview of their particular needs.
In this meeting, the MEPs called the attention of the Commissioner to the specific problems of large families in Europe such as social security, equal treatment, unfavourable tax policies, conciliation of family and professional life etc.
Mr José Ribeiro e Castro presented the European Large Families Associations Confederation (ELFAC) to the Commissioner and expressed the interest of the organization to discuss and establish a collaboration with the Commission, proposal to which Vladimir Spidla responded positively.
Recognizing the fact that Family Policies are competence of Member States and that it should remain so, all participants agreed with Mrs Marie Panayotopoulos - Cassiotou’s proposal that the Commission should contribute to divulge and promote good practices within the EU and help Member States to adapt their policies to large families.
Mrs Roithova stressed the need for co-operation and co-ordination of good practices at the European level and insisted on the necessity of supporting the actions of national family organizations on this regard.
All three MEPs insisted on the importance of family, not only in demographical terms, but also as a factor of social cohesion.
As a response to Mr Ribeiro e Castro’s proposal of holding a European Large Families Forum supported by the Commission, Commissioner Spidla informed the present MEPs that he found the idea interesting and would consider it within the framework of the monitoring and evaluation of the Green Book on Demography.
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MEETING ON “CHILDREN EXPLOITATION”
Intergroup on “Family and protection of childhood”
European Parliament, 14 December 2005
Speech by Annachiara Cerri
Head of the Section “Children, Families and the Elderly”, DGIII, Council of Europe
Some 155 million children live in the 46 member States of the Council of Europe: “it is a great commitment of our Organisation to promote their rights and fully comply with the obligations of the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child ratified by all our member States” said our Heads of State and Government on the occasion of their Third Summit this year in Warsaw. In their Action Plan they stated that “A child rights perspective will be implemented throughout the activities of the Council of Europe and effective coordination of child-related activities must be ensured within the Organisation”. The programme “Building a Europe for and with children” will highlight the work in this field.
This new programme should help to achieve a substantial cultural shift - needed in most European societies - to assert children status as rights holders who must be accorded the same respect for their human dignity and physical integrity as adults.
This Plan includes also the launch of a three year programme of action to address social, legal, health and educational dimensions of the various forms of violence against children with the final aim of eradicating all kind of violence against them.
The fight against the exploitation of children– which has always been a priority in our eyes - will be a particularly focus of the programme, which will be officially launched at a special conference in Monaco, in April 2006. I would like to stress here that on the occasion of the Warsaw Summit, the new Council of Europe Convention on action against trafficking in human beings was opened to signature.
All Council of Europe’s bodies, including our Parliamentary Assembly and Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe, have been actively working for decades in order to promote the rights of children and their well-being.
The Assembly has influenced the work of the Committee of Ministers in this field through a number of resolutions and recommendations.
Among the most recent texts, the Recommendation on “Europe and the Tsunami disaster” also urges the protection of children orphaned by the disaster as a major priority and the need for the international community to act in order to prevent these children from becoming targets for trafficking, physical violence, sexual exploitation or recruitment by sects. The Assembly stresses the importance of identifying all the children as quickly as possible and of implementing measures to prevent trafficking in children. It also reiterates that international adoption must be used only as the very last resort.
Another 2005 Assembly Recommendation on “protection and assistance for separated children seeking asylum” stresses the need to consider the provision of the UN convention in the elaboration and implementation of asylum measures as well as the fact that these children are exposed to a risk of trafficking and other abuses.
Three major legal instruments are particularly relevant in this area:
- the already mentioned UN Convention,
- the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, wgich guarantees civil and political rights of everyone, including children; some of its articles have been used by the Court of Human Rights to protect and promote children’s rights in Europe. For instance, article 4 prohibits slavery and forced labour and protocol n° 12 produces a general prohibition of discrimination on any ground in relation to any right set forth by law.
- the European Social Charter and its revised version which complements the Convention on HR in the field of economic and social rights. The Charter is the major European treaty which specifically secures children rights.
In the last two decades Council’s human rights mechanisms have been increasingly used to address children’s rights
The revised Strategy for Social Cohesion is also an important instrument and considers specifically the rights and dignity of children as well as the role of families, which should be supported, and their importance for a cohesive society.
The European Social Charter deals with different forms of the exploitation of children: its Article 7(§10) guarantees the right of children to be protected against all forms of exploitation.
The Protection against sexual exploitation covers all forms of commercial sexual exploitation of children: child prostitution, child pornography and trafficking of children; to comply with this article states must take specific measures to prohibit and combat all forms of sexual exploitation of children. States must:
• Criminalise all acts of sexual exploitation
• Adopt a national action plan combating the sexual exploitation of children
• Protect children against the misuse of information technologies
For the Protection against other forms of exploitation, States Parties should prohibit the use of children in other forms of exploitation following from trafficking or being on the street, such as, among others, domestic exploitation, begging, pickpocketing, servitude or the removal of organs, and shall take measures to prevent and assist street children.
Child labour: Article 7(§1) of the Charter sets 15 years as the minimum age for admission to employment. This provision aims primarily to protect the education rights of children of compulsory school age.
Children without parental care, like children living in institutions, in streets or who separated or unaccompanied minors, are dealt within our intergovernmental work programme. The Council of Europe attaches considerable importance to problem-solving and improving the situation – especially in respect of the rights of children living in such situations.
Street children/vagrant children, have been the subject of specific programmes particularly from the point of view of their integration into society. Local involvement being crucial for these issues, our work presently includes assistance “on the spot” to countries, like for instance in the Russian Federation within a European Union / Council of Europe joint programme.
In 2005 a Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers to member States deals with the rights of children living in institutions and stresses that if there is the absolute need of a placement, this must take into account the needs and best interests of the child. It is well known that children in institutions are at a very high risk of being exploited and the fate of such children is a human rights issue.
This year a Resolution (AP (2005) 1) on safeguarding adults and children with disabilities against abuse urges the 18 member states of the PA in the Social and Public Health Field to draw up and implement national action plans on safeguarding disabled children against any form of neglect, harm, violence or abuse.
The human rights framework, prevention, participation, cooperation and training are main elements for solving the problem. Support - including financial - to families is crucial, to prevent the appearance of « social orphans » for example.
Children’s rights - including those of children with disabilities, from ethnic and minority groups, migrant children and assistance / support to families ,including those in a situation of social exclusion, will also be considered at the Conference of European Ministers responsible for Family Affairs on “Changes in parenting: Children Today, Parents Tomorrow” which will take place next year in Portugal.
How to approach these issues? The four « Ps » foreseen for the work on the programme of action “Children and violence” should be kept in mind in this area:
- Protection of the children;
- Prevention of violence;
- Prosecution of criminals;
- Participation of children.
Non-discrimination is also a very important element when it comes to exploitation of children.
An integrated approach and international cooperation are also crucial for succeeding in promoting children’s rights and their protection, particularly against exploitation and any form if violence.
Among the four “Ps” it is of the highest importance for the Council of Europe, to insure their participation in decision-making concerning them and the respect of their opinions.
I would like to thank the European Parliament and especially the Chair of this Intergroup, Ms Marie Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou, for the invitation made to the Council of Europe to present its work in the field of the exploitation of children. This approach is also in line with the decisions of the Warsaw Summit where a much closer cooperation between our Organisation and the European Union is foreseen.
I would like to finish by recalling some words – which speak for themselves - from unaccompanied children who were consulted during a recent major conference we organised on this topic:
“If the authorities do not help those who arrive, then they will become criminal”
“If I am not given residency status, I will go to another country in Europe and if I have to, I will steal or sell drugs. But I would prefer to stay here and work.”
Thank you.
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