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European Association of Service providers for Persons with DisabilitiesEuropean Association of Service providers for Persons with Disabilities
  • News, Early Childhood Intervention

The Children’s rights Action Group (CRAG)'s newest position paper presents key comprehensive principles to guide the new EU Child Right Strategy.

The Children’s rights Action Group (CRAG), a partnership of International NGO’s, has published a joint position paper in reaction to the new EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child highlighting key priorities and principles for achieving a comprehensive strategy.

 

In March, the European Commission released its Communication for a new EU Strategy on the rights of the child.  In the Strategy, the Commission addresses persisting and emerging challenges and proposes concrete actions to protect, promote and fulfil children’s rights in today’s ever-changing world. According to the Communication, every child in Europe and across the world should enjoy the same rights and live free from discrimination and intimidation of any kind.

The thematic areas of the Strategy include:

  1. Participation in political and democratic life;
  2. Socio-economic inclusion, health and education;
  3. Combating violence against children and ensuring child protection
  4. Child-friendly justice;
  5. Digital information and society;
  6. The Global Dimension.

The Children’s rights Action Group (CRAG), a partnership of International NGO’s published a joint position paper on a comprehensive child right strategy which EASPD endorsed. CRAG members include Eurochild, the European Juvenile Justice Observatory, Plan International, Save the Children, SOS Children’s Villages Terre Des Hommes International Federation and World vision.  CRAG aims to ensure that children’s rights are protected, respected, and fulfilled both in the internal and external dimension of EU policies and legislation in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

The CRAG position paper presented a set of key principles to guide the Strategy as well as priorities and actions for the European institutions, Member States and partner countries. These principles and priorities are core principles enshrined in the UN CRC and its General Comments.

The paper includes a strong call on the European Commission, the Council, and the Member States to priorities the needs of children with disabilities in the areas of education, independent living, with strong emphasis on deinstitutionalisation, and to promote early childhood development across policies and funding. Another key area is data collection, which should be improved and disaggregated by elements of diversity. Also, children need to be made visible in the EU budget by securing traceable direct and indirect allocations.

EASPD is strongly committed towards early intervention and the respect of child rights. Investing in polices and actions targeting children means investing in a more inclusive and better future for all.

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