Child Participation - Eurochild’s achievements in 2023
Annual Report 2023.
In 2023 Eurochild continued promoting child participation in decision making and implemented it in its internal procedures and projects.
Our Achievements
We gave Child Participation and Child Protection training to the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children (ENOC). The content of the training was inspired by current and former Eurochild Children’s Council members.
The Reaching-In project involving partners working with Roma children in Spain and Bulgaria, children in residential care in Portugal, with children in foster care in Croatia and migrant children in Belgium presented their work and recommendations on how to involve vulnerable children in Inclusive Children’s Participation and the Child Guarantee to European Commission officials. As a result the child-friendly version of the Child Guarantee and a Child Guarantee Game developed children from marginalised backgrounds are now included on the DG EMPL website.
Diversity and Inclusion Award
Our work with children on the new EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child with the European Commission's Department for Justice won the European Ombudsman Award for Good Administration 2023. Members of the Eurochild Children’s Council were part of a children’s advisory group that worked on the survey and strategy.
Projects
With our members, we are participating in several CERV projects looking at mainstreaming children’s right to participate in local and national decision-making:
- We launched the DAY Project – Democratic Activation of Youth, coordinated by our member Albero della Vita in partnership with CIDIS, to create and institutionalise mechanisms of child participation in democratic life at the local level in Italy. High school students from three districts of Naples with poor social and economic indicators met with local decision-makers to discuss issues and needs in their municipalities and wrote their Youth Civic Agendas.
- We launched the Child Citizens Project – to create meaningful local child participation in Hungary. As a partner of the project we also delivered child participation training co-facilitated by a child from the ECC in Budapest’s Jozsefvaros District.
- We launched the Building Children’s Futures project (in partnership with our member Children’s Rights Alliance Ireland and other organisations) to work with the nationalgovernment to embed child rights impact assessments into national decision-making when emergency planning, learning from the experiences of Covid-19. The research is done through consultations with groups of children and young people who were disproportionately impacted. The Irish radio interviewed a young member of the project who has received the Traveller Pride Week Education Award. One of Eurochild’s Children’s Council members was also involved in the project.
The Eurochild Children’s Council
The Eurochild Children's Council (ECC) is a group of 11 children supported by Eurochild members from 11 different countries around Europe. They have a mandate of 2 years and work with the Secretariat and its members.
- In 2023 the Eurochild Children’s Council met with European Commission DG EMPL and DG JUST representatives to present their campaign on the EU Child Guarantee and facilitate an interactive workshop with them.
- In 2023 they played bigger in Eurochild’s governance and were involved in the recruitment of three new staff members including the new permanent Secretary General.
- EU Elections: Two ECC members are on the advisory board for the #EuropeKidsWant survey developed along with UNICEF, Save the Children, SOS Children’s Villages, Child Fund Alliance and the Child-Friendly Governance Project
- ECC member Jacob went on National TV and won at a charitable quiz show
- Eurochild Children’s Council member Lana became the Children’s Mayor of Opatija
- The ECC members met with 12 members of the European Parliament, including President Roberta Metsola, to discuss their concerns on children’s rights.
- The ECC piloted the guidance for the children’s consultations on online safety
- The ECC was consulted on the outcome indicators of the Council of Europe child participation assessment tool with the aim to measure the progress that governments are making in ensuring children have the right to be heard.
National Eurochild Forums
- Together with our National Eurochild Forums we published the report ‘Poverty takes away the right to childhood: Children’s perceptions of poverty in 4 EU Member States’, which includes contributions and quotes from children.
- Members of the National Eurochild Forum Croatia and Eurochild Children's Council met the Croatian Parliament
- Three of the National Eurochild Forums were involved in the #EuropeKidsWant survey
- Three of the National Eurochild Forums were involved in consultations on online safety and how the EU can help children stay safe from (sexual) violence, feeding into the VOICE project
Child Safeguarding
- Child safeguarding training sessions to new incoming staff
