Building a Europe for and with children

Brief description
The programme "Building a Europe for and with children" is  being implemented further to the Third Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe (Warsaw 2005).
It is also a response to the Organisation's mandate to guarantee an integrated approach to promoting children's rights and the decision to launch a three-year programme covering the social, legal, educational and health dimensions relevant to protecting children from various forms of violence. 

The programme comprises two closely related stands: the promotion of children's rights and the protection of children from violence. 

The programme's main objective is to help all decisions makers and players concerned to design and implement national strategies for the protection of children's rights and the prevention of violence against children.

The key concepts of its working methods are "transversality", "integrated approach", "partnerships" and "communication". In fulfilling its objectives, the programme relies on the pooled resources of both the relevant Council of Europe bodies and institutions and its outside partners to obtain sustainable results.

The programme Strategy for the years 2009-2011 was adopted by the Committee of Ministers in November 2008.

About the website

The website  informs on the activities of the programme "Building a Europe for and with children".  It aims to show the inter-dependence of the Organisation's different entities, and how each combines its particular expertise with that of others to fulfil objectives. It should also enable users to keep abreast of the activities relevant to children  that are taking place throughout the Council of Europe. 

The central image of the site, which symbolises the programme, is a tangram.  The tangram is an ancient Chinese thinking game, consisting of seven geometric pieces. The game is similar to a puzzle, except that the pieces can be combined to form a myriad of shapes. The challenges posed by this simple yet complex game are symbolic of our task ahead: building a Europe for and with children.

The illustrations on this website are protected by Council of Europe copyright. Click here for information on the artists.