Council of Europe - Unicef: Fighting sexual exploitation and violence against children
Ljubljana, 5 - 7 July 2005

Programme of Action Children and Violence (2005-2007)

I. Introduction

The eradication of all forms of violence in everyday life is now a major concern of the governments and citizens of the Council of Europe member states. In Oslo in 2004 the European Ministers responsible for the Prevention of Violence in Everyday Life [1] underscored the need to frame comprehensive national policies based on twelve general principles that they identified, and recommended launching priority action to combat violence against children.

At the Third Summit (Warsaw, 16-17 May 2005) the Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe’s forty-six member states decided to launch a three-year programme of action to address the social, legal, health and educational dimensions of the various forms of violence against children.

The Programme of Action on “Children and violence” (2005-2007) seeks to assist the member states fulfil their commitments made under the various relevant international legal instruments, principally by developing interdisciplinary national prevention policies and strategies for the protection of children.

The Council of Europe is already regarded as one of the organisations that has amassed the greatest experience and expertise in this area. The acquis of the Council of Europe is continually expanding due to the results obtained in most intergovernmental co-operation sectors, in the Parliamentary Assembly, in the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe and other bodies. The reports of the Commissioner for Human Rights, the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights, the conclusions of the European Committee of Social Rights and those of the various monitoring bodies offer substantial guidance for identifying problems and their solutions.

The Council of Europe has also invested in devising strategies, instruments and guidelines which will facilitate the implementation of existing standards. Local partnership strategies for violence prevention in schools, teacher-training modules for prevention and management of school conflict, educational resources on violence prevention designed for youth workers, or handbooks on the social integration of young people from difficult neighbourhoods are all excellent examples of tools developed by the Council of Europe.

The Programme of Action is intended to reinforce the coherence of these efforts, add to them where necessary and increase their impact and the visibility of their results.

II. Principles of the Programme of Action

- Children are not “mini-persons with mini-rights”

Violence against children will continue to exist as long as adults continue to see children as mini-persons.

Children need more than care and protection; they should also be recognised as holders of legal rights. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child has become synonymous of the major progress made in children’s rights. Its values and principles have been fully approved by the forty-six member states of the Council of Europe. The member states have made numerous commitments under general human rights conventions and specific conventions on children’s rights and the protection of children against all forms of violence.

The Council of Europe has drawn up several legal instruments which protect children from violence: chiefly among these are the European Convention on Human Rights, the revised Social Charter, the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The case-law of the European Court of Human Rights and the European Committee of Social Rights have all devoted particular emphasis to children, particularly in cases where children have been ill-treated, or subjected to violence and abuse. The European Convention on the Exercise of Children’s Rights guarantees, for example, the exercise by children of certain procedural rights in family court proceedings.

In addition to these instruments, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe provides different countries with substantial and specifically targeted aid to protect children from violence and child trafficking.

The Programme of Action for 2005-2007 will seek to assist states in implementing these commitments and adapting national policies, laws and practices to the principles established in the work of the various supervisory or monitoring bodies. The action plan will propose strategies, structures and institutions, working methods and ways of raising awareness, informing and training the general public and those directly concerned.

- Children first

Putting children first means recognising their vulnerability, placing them at the heart of public policies and action. The programme starts from the principle that we must invest in children because they are in the present, and they are the future of humanity. Putting them first also means giving them the opportunity to be heard and taken into consideration as fully-fledged individuals, active citizens and persons with rights and obligations.

- Take action against the many faces of violence

The reality of violence has many faces. The Programme of Action will address all the situations of violence in which children may find themselves (in schools, the family, institutions, the community and so forth) as well as children’s role in violence (as victims, perpetrators, and as players and partners involved in prevention).

- Building on the results achieved and experience acquired at European level

The member states have already undertaken a wide range of activities on the various aspects of violence against children. The recommendations marking the end of the programme will be drawn up on the basis of the experience already acquired in the member states and by exploiting the expertise the various Council of Europe bodies and partners.

- A genuine and successful interdisciplinary approach to violence against children

The Heads of State and Government decided to adopt an integrated approach to the protection of children’s rights, which will cut across all sectors of activity of the Council of Europe. An integrated approach calls for co-operation and co-ordination between all competent public and private authorities dealing with the issue in the legal, social, educational and health dimensions. It also implies proper co-ordination of the activities undertaken at international, national, regional and local level.

The Programme of Action on “Children and Violence” was created to ensure success in meeting this challenge. The methodology chosen is based on efficient and effective co-ordination of all activities link to children in the Organisation. A inter-secretariat Task Force was set up for this purpose.

III . Objectives of the programme of action

The core objective of the Programme of Action is to protect children against all forms of violence and promote their rights through various activities. These activities, which will be interdisciplinary whenever possible, will be geared to the needs identified in the various areas covered by the Programme of Action. They will entail information and awareness-raising, involving children and young people, devising strategies and pragmatic tools at international, national and local level and assessing the impact of international legal instruments.

The Programme of Action therefore aims to propose a coherent and comprehensive set of instruments and methodological tools which clearly link up the legal commitments made and the arrangements for fulfilling them.

Six specific objectives have been identified in order to achieve this overall objective:

i. Directly involving children and young people in policies against violence

Working for or with children and young people?

The Programme of Action does not simply seek to work for children but also, and perhaps above all, to involve them in identifying the problems and taking practical steps.

In each of the areas covered by the Programme of Action, special attention will also be paid to identifying and devising the best methods for listening to children and involving them in the activities affecting them. Moreover, a comprehensive initiative will be taken at the level of the programme.

ii. Ensuring the application of European and international standards on the rights and protection of children

How can we put children’s rights into practice in their everyday lives?

In particular, this will mean:

- promoting the ratification of the relevant conventions (in areas such as human rights, social and economic rights, the fight against torture, child trafficking, child sexual exploitation and abuse, cybercrime, the exercise of children’s rights, personal relationships involving children, etc) by all the member states and, where possible, observer states;

- ensuring the effective application of these international instruments with the aid of existing texts and convention machinery, and assessing their real impact;

- producing “handbooks of good practices” in various areas;

- devising measures – possibly including legal instruments, to put an end to child sexual exploitation and abuse.

iii. Framing strategies for practical action relating to the various contexts and types of violence against children

The political will of public authorities and the goodwill of other players are not enough.

For each context or type of violence, the idea will be to frame strategies, identify examples of good practices and produce handbooks for fulfilling general commitments or specific recommendations. These instruments will be addressed to the different players, as appropriate, whether the public authorities, civil society, professionals, children and young people or the general public.

Four areas of intervention have been identified:

- The family:

What are the alternatives for promoting parenting without violence in a changing society? How can we support parents and encourage people to listen to children?

Guides/handbooks will be produced with a view to developing parenting without violence and putting forward methods for consulting and listening to children.

- School :

What are the prerequisites for school without violence? How should we respond to violence and above all prevent it?

Recommendations and methodological and educational handbooks on the prevention of all forms of violence at school will be issued, particularly for the benefit of primary schools, in the context of education for democratic citizenship.

- Residential institutions:

What are the requirements to be met and the practices to be introduced to ensure that these institutions play their full part in excluding all forms of violence?

Further to Committee of Ministers Recommendation (2005)5 on the rights of children living in residential institutions, material for publicising these rights will be produced and activities for implementing them will be carried out, especially for the benefit of children themselves and of the players concerned.

- The community:

How can we prevent violence in the community, in towns and in the street? What part can youth organisations and non-formal education play?

Practical proposals will be made, in the form of handbooks and training courses, on the role and training of the players concerned, especially as part of youth policies.

These four areas are clearly influenced by contexts in which they evolve, by the socio-economic and political climate, and by the way the world is depicted in media. Complementary to the work carried out in these four areas, the Programme of Action will focus on two determining factors:

- The socio-economic and political context

What steps can we take to allow all children and young people to fit into society? How can we overcome tensions and the dangers of exclusion and ensure that each child has a place and a future? How can children learn tolerance and respect for others from their earliest years? How can we protect children who are the victims of conflict?

Priority will be assigned to framing comprehensive strategies for integrating children and young people, covering social, economic, educational and cultural aspects. Guides /handbooks for the players involved will be published.

Strategies and methods will be devised to involve young people and children, either in the general framework of intercultural and inter-religious dialogue or through activities specifically designed for them. Priority will be given to producing and especially disseminating teaching aids.

- The role of the media:

What is the real impact of violent media content? What are the dangers of the new media? How can we train children and young people to have a critical approach to the media?

On the basis of a discussion of the concept of “harmful content”, activities will be undertaken firstly for media professionals and managers (ethics and responsibility) and secondly as part of media education (teaching aids).

iv. Framing national prevention strategies

How can we ensure consistency and co-ordination in national policies?

It is widely agreed that all the steps taken in particular areas must be incorporated into a national action or prevention plan. Over and above the importance of a national political initiative, the machinery to be set up and the methods to be developed need clarifying. Proposals for national strategies will be made on the basis of a series of studies of national policies which are already in operation.

v. Making proposals for local integrated prevention strategies

How can we adapt national policies to specific local situations?

Among the twelve national prevention policy principles adopted at the Oslo Conference, great emphasis was placed on support for local prevention schemes. The local level is where the causes, effects and types of violence are most obviously interconnected. A network of pilot experiments will be set up to assess the strategies developed on the ground and derive practical recommendations from them.

vi. Building awareness and spreading information on children’s rights

Is it possible to respect rights and enforce respect for those rights if we are not aware of them?

A very broad and sustained awareness-raising and information campaign will be launched at European level to improve knowledge of children’s rights and especially of their right to protection against all forms of violence. This campaign will be based on a network of national bodies and will have to target both the various professional players concerned, the general public and children themselves.

1. Ad hoc Conference of European Ministers responsible for the Prevention of Violence in Everyday Life “Preventing everyday violence in Europe: responses in a democratic society” (7-9 November 2004). This conference marked the end of the Integrated Project “Responses to violence in everyday life in a democratic society” (2002-2004) (Final report – Confronting everyday violence in Europe: an integrated approach IP2(2004)28, Resolution IP2(2004)27).