Council of Europe

 Children's rights activities

 The Council of Europe addresses children's rights by combining  highly effective tools, such as standard setting – monitoring – policy development – co-operation and assistance programmes – education, training and communication.  The following sections present an overview of this work, with relevant links.

Standard setting 
 
The following legal texts concerning children are under preparation or newly adopted:

• The European Convention on the Adoption of Children (Revised) (ETS No. 202) was opened for signature on 27 November 2008

•  a Council of Europe Charter on citizenship and human rights education is in preparation. 

•  Committee of Ministers Recommendation  Rec(2008)11 on European Rules for juvenile offenders subject to sanctions or measures was adopted 5 November 2008

Policy development /on-going activities

•  Council of Europe steering committees in the fields of legal co-operation, human rights, social cohesion, education and youth have all placed children's rights issues on their agendas:

•  Education of  Roma children  (DG-IV, Education  Division) / see also the Roma awareness-raising campaign (DG-III, Roma and Travellers Division) and Dosta, joint CoE-European Commission site ;

•  Education for democratic citizenship (DG-IV, Education Division);

•  The rights of children with disabilities (DG-III)

•  See the Council of Europe Action Plan to promote the rights and full participation of people with disabilities in society, attached to Recommendation Rec(2006)5. The action plan calls attention to: the increased vulnerability of persons with disabilities to violence and abuse, especially women and girls; gender-biased obstacles to participation in society encountered by women and girls; the need for specific measures to provide education for children with disabilities, and which will enable them to reach their maximum potential in family and community life.

•  Designing tools for decision makers on citizenship and human rights education   (DG-IV, Education Division, EDC pack);

National reviews of violence prevention policies in the member states – pilot scheme.

Co-operation and assistance

Upon request, the Council of Europe will co-operate with countries on an individual basis, assisting them with legal reform, policy and institutional framework design, and training for professionals.
 

Outreach – communication, education and training

•  Standards and policies need to be accompanied by communication, education and training strategies. Current activities include:

•  Developing a website on children's rights;

•  Developing further the online data base, Theseus, on case law of the European Court of Human Rights relevant to children;

•  Developing child-friendly communication (web and printed material);

•   Developing a child- and youth-friendly version of the Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life;

•  Communication initiatives on specific issues, such as sexual violence, corporal punishment, violence in schools

•  Developing further Through the WildWebWoods, the e-game on Internet safety, by integrating human rights topics;

•  Publishing texts for lawyers on children's human rights and texts on Council of Europe actions to end violence against children;

•  Promoting Compasito, a manual for human rights education for children, through training and publication in other languages;

•  Developing further training courses on human rights;

•  Organising events and thematic campaigns at national level. Raise your hand against smacking! Launch of the campaign against corporal punishment of children