In April 2006, all Council of Europe partners gathered in Monaco at a high-level conference to discuss children's rights. The over 300 participants called for a genuine political commitment, the establishment of a platform to co-ordinate action and the launch of a process to guarantee that real progress was made and children's rights remained on the political agenda in the years to come. The first result of the "Monaco process" was  the launching of the Council of Europe programme, "Building a Europe for and with children".

Despite the progress achieved, many challenges remain, while new threats to children's rights have emerged. With its present 2009-2011 strategy coming to an end, the Council of Europe is currently preparing a new strategy on the rights of the child for the years 2012-2015. The 2011 Monaco conference marks the end of the consultations leading up to the presentation of the strategy for adoption by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in January 2012.
 

The conference objectives aimed:

1. To assess the progress achieved since the launching of the Programme, "Building a Europe for and with Children" in Monaco in 2006;

2. To discuss the priority axes of the new Council of Europe strategy on the rights of the child and identify actions to be taken by the organisation, its member states and other partners to ensure respect for children's rights through the various international standard-setting texts and promote the development of legislation, policies and practices at national level.

Participants:
The conference brought together around 200 participants, including representatives of governments, parliaments, local and regional authorities, international organisations, civil society, private companies and professional networks, ombudspersons for children, researchers and other independent experts, as well as children and young people.