Child Participation Assessment Tool

The aim of the Council of Europe Child Participation Assessment Tool is to support states in meeting the goals of the Recommendation on participation of children and young people under the age of 18. The Assessment Tool offers a method, at European level, to facilitate and support the implementation of the child’s right to participate.

The Assessment Tool provides 10 basic indicators enabling states to:

undertake a baseline assessment of current implementation of the recommendation;
help identify measures needed to achieve further compliance by states;
measure progress over time.

The Assessment Tool can be used across government ministries, throughout local authority administrations, with the courts and judicial systems, with relevant professionals working with children, with academic and civil society partners, and with organisations of children and young people.

In 2016-2017, the Assessment Tool was successfullly piloted in Estonia, Ireland and Romania, and subsequently revised. In 2017-2018, three further countries (Bulgaria, Italy and Latvia) appiled the tool and an evaluation meeting of this work cycle will take place in Sofia, Bulgaria in July 2018.

The Assessment Tool is accompanied by an Implementation Guide with a roadmap and detailed guidance on information collection, focus groups and using the results for reporting to the UN Committee for the Rights of the Child.

The Child Participation Assessment Tool is aligned with the “Framework for monitoring and evaluating children’s participation”, a toolkit for monitoring and evaluating child participation processes at global level.

Council of Europe standards

events

Back Kiko’s exciting adventures continue in the digital age

New Kiko and the Manymes video and storybook for young children are out!

The Council of Europe project to End Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse@Europe (EndOCSEA@Europe) is happy to announce the launch of the new adventures of our beloved character friend Kiko who is now discovering screens and the misuse of pictures in the online environment in the video and storybook of Kiko and the Manymes. It also features Pipa, Kiko’s friend and confidant, the “magic whistle”, Skrin and the Manymes, who misuse Kiko’s pictures.

The objective of Kiko and the Manymes is twofold. Firstly, this campaign is addressed to adults, with a focus on parents and caregivers of children 4-7 years old, teaching them how to protect their children and avoid their exposure to phones with video and photo cameras or a webcam. Secondly, the experience of Kiko with screens in the book, which also present “the golden rules of screens”, provide a basic set of rules to empower children to protect their privacy and their image in the online environment.

These awareness-raising tools are currently available in English and will be translated shortly in French and Spanish as well as in the 10 languages of the EndOCSEA@Europe Project beneficiary countries, in order to reach a wide audience.

Why this initiative?

1 in 3 internet users worldwide is a child. Numbers are on the rise. While information and communication technologies bring many benefits to children, they also put children at risk, including very young children.

The age of users and potential victims of abuse continues to lower, with very young children being more exposed to harm. Children as young as 2 are using internet-enabled devices via gaming, entertainment and educational games and children of 5 to 7 years of age are using in-game messaging, voice and text chats.

Young children are particularly exposed to child sexual abuse and exploitation online with 28% of victims being below the age of 11. Nude and semi-nude pictures of children are regularly posted online by adults.

In some cases, very young children are groomed, deceived or extorted into producing and sharing a sexual image or video of themselves, sometimes in the child’s own room. This content may then be traded and exchanged, perpetuating a particularly pernicious form of child sexual exploitation and abuse which is on the rise. It is very difficult for victims to seek help and very challenging for law enforcement to identify the victims, prosecute the abusers and remove the content from the Internet.

Let’s keep children safe! Come and discover more about Kiko’s brand new adventure.

Acknowledgements:

The Council of Europe gratefully acknowledges the financial support provided for this programme by the End Violence Fund.

Kiko and the Manymes Video