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Summary: At the third summit in May 2005, the Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe's 46 members decided to launch a 3 year programme of action to address social, legal, health and educational dimensions of the various forms of violence against children.
Information Documents SG/Inf (2004)31 9 November 2004 ———————————————— Programme of action on "Children and violence" ———————————————— Document presented by the Deputy Secretary General Why a programme of action on "Children and violence"? - In Council of Europe member States, taken as a whole, the population below the age of 18 numbers around 155 million individuals. - In all our member States, children are victims of the worst kinds of violence and violations of their human rights. For many good reasons, addressing the issue of children and violence is a priority for the governments and in particular for the ministries of social affairs and education in most of our countries. All our member States have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and are expected to develop national action plans to ensure its full implementation. - Violence affecting children is closely linked to broader forms of violence and to organised crime. Violence affects children at school, in the street, in the institutions where they are placed, within the family… Children are also victims of global problems such as trafficking in human beings, drug trafficking, terrorism, armed conflicts, cybercrime. - The complexity of the issues at stake calls for a comprehensive strategy likely to coordinate the efforts of all key actors and mobilise all resources available. - It is therefore necessary to adopt a global approach to this issue as regards both the definition of standards and their implementation through national action plans. Why a programme of action on "Children and violence" within the Council of Europe? - The Council of Europe is perceived by many national or international, public or civil society players as one of the organisations having amassed the most experience in this field, whether in the definition of general standards or in the development of sector-specific strategies. It is for this very reason that UNICEF has invited the Council of Europe to substantially contribute to the worldwide study on violence against children currently under preparation in the United Nations. - Most of the intergovernmental cooperation sectors, the Parliamentary Assembly, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities and other bodies have indeed already widely addressed this issue in the past, and a number of activities in the 2004 Programme of Activities relate to it. The reports of the Human Rights Commissioner, the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and the conclusions of our various monitoring mechanisms provide substantial guidance to identify both the problems and possible solutions. - The twelve general principles for use in formulating national policies on preventing violence in everyday life resulting from the Integrated Project on "Responses to Violence in Everyday Life in a Democratic Society", constitute guidelines that could easily be adapted to the children and violence. - The Council of Europe accordingly already has the bulk of the elements needed to produce an overall analysis of the standards and provide guidelines and technical assistance for the development and implementation of national strategies at different levels. The programme's objectives The programme of action will last three years and will pursue the following objectives: 1. Assisting member States to implement international standards at national and local levels, in particular the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the European Social Charter and the European Convention on the Exercise of Children's Rights. 2. By 2007, proposing a coherent and comprehensive set of instruments and methodological guidelines covering all aspects of the question. 3. Improving the visibility and the impact of Council of Europe's work. Priority fields The programme will focus on three priority fields: 1. Identification of strategies and measures aiming at the integration of the “children and violence” dimension in the policies related to: 2. Promotion of children's rights in general, notably within education systems, youth movements, social work and judicial proceedings (with a special focus on the training of the professionals involved). 3. Effective legal protection of children against all forms of violence. Management of the programme Internal - The efforts undertaken in recent years have shown that enhanced cross-sectoral action between departments and other bodies within the Council of Europe enhance the quality, the impact and the visibility of our work. - The programme will be managed by an inter-secretariat task force. It will be responsible for co-ordinating the various actions, identifying opportunities, providing input, monitoring, and communicating results. A small team will act as secretariat of the task force, ensuring involvement of all relevant actors and adequate communication flow. External - Co-ordination with external partners (in particular international governmental and non governmental organisations) will be established through their involvement in the different on-going activities. Ad-hoc meetings will be organised when necessary. Particular attention will be paid to: Budget - Sector-specific activities will be financed by the Directorates General or departments concerned. - The proposed ordinary budget for 2005 allocates very limited resources to cover the cost of the task force’s secretariat, the organisation of international consultations and the widest possible dissemination of the results. - A call for voluntary contributions targeting specific objectives will be made in due course. Evaluation The programme of action will be evaluated annually and on its completion.
- social exclusion,
- children in institutional care,
- education and media,
- abandoned, displaced, refugee and stateless children,
- family, in particular effective parenting,
- urban life and intercommunity relations.
§ the need to involve children, NGOs and social partners,
§ our contribution to the preparation of the United Nations global study and the follow-up of its results.