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The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe debated its report on
"Child victims: stamping out all forms of
violence, exploitation and abuse of child victims" at its morning session of
Tuesday 23 January. The report calls for reinforcing and devising new
domestic measures to step up the protection of children from violence.
Despite Europe's many legal instruments in this field, the reality
lived by a substantial number of children is something quite different.
The debates resulted in the adoption of
Recommendation 1778 and
Resolution 1530 on child victims: stamping out all forms of violence,
exploitation and abuse.
The alarming
figures for sexual abuse in the family, child trafficking, forced labour, severe corporal and psychological punishment in care institutions and
at home do not exclude Europe and the industrialised countries. Two
children per week die of maltreatment in Germany and the United Kingdom, and
three in France.
The report, which fully supports the approach adopted by the programme
"Building a Europe for and with Children" was issued by the Committee on
Legal Affairs and Human Rights (rapporteur: Jean-Charles Gardetto).
Following the report, Unicef's Executive
Director Ann Veneman, HRH the Princess of Hanover and Human Rights Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg made statements. The
princess, whose longstanding committment to children's causes is well
known, spoke in her capacity as president of the World Association of
Children's Friends (AMADE).
Ann Veneman:
video
speech - text of speech
HRH the Princess of Hanover:
video
speech - text of speech in French
Thomas Hammarberg: speech
Other events
Two other significant events for children's
rights also took place on this day. Terry Davis, Secretary General of
the Council of Europe
and Ms Veneman signed a joint declaration reinforcing co-operation
between the Council of Europe and Unicef. Joint work between the two organisations will include devising
strategies, research, data collection and policy development.
See
joint declaration.
Following the
Assembly debate, there was a brief ceremony to launch the "United
Nations Study on Violence against Children" in Europe. It
took
place in the Lobby of the Assembly Debating Chamber and speakers included Assembly president René
van der Linden, Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe Maud
de Boer-Buquicchio and Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, the UN's
independent expert appointed to write the study.
René van der Linden: speech
Maud de Boer-Buquicchio: speech
Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro: speech
The programme "Building a Europe for and with children"
invited
about 60 elementary school children to attend the Assembly debate. The
children's delegations came from the Jean Fischart School, the
International School Robert Schuman and the Children's Municipal Council of Schiltgheim. The
latter had a private meeting with HRH the Princess of Hanover , Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro and Ms de
Boer-Buquicchio and attended the launch ceremony.
Group photo at the launch ceremony
with children elected to the Children's Municipal Council of Schiltigheim:
Press:
Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace /
Euronews |
