ENOC URGES ALL EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS TO APPOINT OMBUDSMAN FOR CHILDREN
The European Network of Ombudsmen for Children (ENOC) urges the Governments of all European States to establish independent institutions to promote and protect the human rights of children. ENOC welcomes the accelerating trend towards creating special institutions - children’s ombudsmen, commissioners for children’s rights and so on - to monitor and support the task of ensuring full implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (ratified by every European state) and of creating child-friendly societies.
Establishing these institutions is a demonstration by governments of good will towards children that they take seriously their commitments under the Convention and are willing to be held accountable for their treatment of children by an independent office. It is a recognition that no government can be complacent about its treatment of children.
Offices have a variety of names - Children’s Ombudsman, Commissioner or Commission for Children’s rights, National Council for Children’s Rights, Defenders of Children, Child Advocates, Child Rights Delegates. They share the same basic aims:
 | to promote full implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child; |
| to promote a higher priority for children and a greater visibility of children’s rights, in central, regional or local government and in civil society, and to improve public attitudes to children; |
| to influence law, policy and practice which will affect the human rights of children, both by responding to government and other proposals and by actively proposing changes; |
| to promote proper co-ordination of government for children at all levels and ensure that the impact on children’s human rights of policy proposals is assessed and given proper consideration; |
| to promote effective use of scarce resources - money and other resources - for children; |
| to provide a channel for children’s views; |
| to encourage government and the public to give proper respect to children’s views; |
| to promote structures which will enable children to exercise rights for themselves; |
| to collect and publish data on the recognition and enjoyment of children’s human rights and/or encourage the government to collect and publish adequate data; |
| to promote awareness of the human rights of children among children themselves and adults; |
| to conduct investigations and undertake or encourage research; |
| to review children’s access to, and the effectiveness of, all forms of advocacy and complaints systems, for example in detention, other institutions and schools and in relation to violence within the family, and including a review of children’s access to the courts; |
| to respond to individual problems or complaints from children or those representing children, and where appropriate to initiate or support legal action on behalf of children. |
The structure, size and activities of offices vary according to the situation of children in particular States.
To be effective advocates for children, ENOC believes these offices must be established through legislation with guarantees of independence and appropriate powers, linked to States’ obligations to children under the Convention.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child, the international body established by the Convention to monitor its implementation worldwide, has commended States which have set up independent human rights institutions for children, and urged others to do so. In its examination of reports from States it has placed particular emphasis on the need for independence.
The appointment of independent offices has also been strongly promoted by the Council of Europe, whose "European Strategy for Children" (1996) proposes the appointment of "a commissioner (ombudsman) for children or another structure offering guarantees of independence, and the responsibilities required to improve children’s lives, and accessible to the public through such means as local offices". The Strategy puts all its recommendations in the context of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. (Recommendation 1286 on a European Strategy for Children, adopted by Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, January 24 1996).
There are many reasons why children in particular need special institutions to protect their human rights: first, they have no vote and play no significant part in the political process; second, there are serious problems for children in using the legal system to assert their rights or seek remedies for breaches of their rights. Children’s developmental state makes them particularly vulnerable: they are more affected than adults by the conditions under which they live, and by the actions or inactions of government.
The development of institutions to promote the human rights of children fits into a key aim of the United Nations: the establishment of national institutions to promote and protect human rights generally. In some countries, special arrangements to promote children’s human rights have been developed within a national human rights institution.
ENOC believes that the special status of children demands either a separate independent institution or special arrangements within a national human rights institution, including:
| first, that the legislative framework for the national institution includes provisions setting out specific functions, rights and duties relating to children, linked to the Convention; |
| second, that there is an identifiable "ombudsman" or representative for children (ideally someone who will bring status and public and political respect to the task, have a high public profile and so enhance the status and visibility of children); |
| and thirdly, that this individual has appropriate staffing and a ring-fenced minimum budget. |
ENOC was established in Trondheim, Norway in 1997. ENOC currently has member-offices in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Norway, Portugal, Russian Federation, Spain and Sweden. An office is currently being established in France, and discussions are underway in Luxembourg, Switzerland and Ireland.
One of ENOC’s agreed aims is to promote and support the establishment of independent offices for children in all European countries. It can offer advice and training. Detailed information on existing offices is available through ENOC. The current (1998/99) Chair of ENOC is Professor Per Schultz Jorgensen, Chair of the Danish Borneradet - National Council for Children. For further information, contact ENOC’s Secretariat, provided by UNICEF’s Office for Europe, Palais des Nations, CH-1211, Geneva 10.
ENOC URGES POLITICIANS TO RESPECT CHILDREN’S VIEWS
Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child provides an obligation on States to enable children (defined as everyone from birth to 18) to express their views freely, and to ensure that their views are given "due consideration", having regard to age and maturity. States must also ensure that children have a right to be heard in any judicial or administrative proceedings which affect them.
ENOC, the European Network of Children’s Ombudsmen, welcomes moves in many countries towards developing law, policy and practice which respects children’s views:
| in the family, by developing legislation and parenting education to define parental responsibility and encourage parents to listen to their children and involve them increasingly in family decision-making; |
| in pre-school care and education and in schools, by providing legislation and structures which ensure that individual children’s views are respected and that children as a group can influence decision-making which affects them; |
| in all other services which impact on children and in local communities, ensuring consultation with children over environmental planning, play and recreation and transport. |
Promoting the principles of Article 12 and providing a channel for children’s views is a key role for children’s ombudsmen and similar independent offices established in a growing number of European States. The legislation establishing offices often requires them to listen to children. For example, the Danish National Council for Children is required to "advise authorities on matters relating to children’s conditions and include children’s points of view in its work". The Children’s Rights Commissioner for the Flemish Community of Belgium must "dialogue with children".
The Committee on the Rights of the Child, the international monitoring body for the Convention, has emphasised that article 12 should be incorporated into national laws and procedures and that adults working with children should receive training which promotes the active participation of children.
Politicians can only gain by listening to children: ENOC urges governments of all European States to review their law, policy and practice to ensure consistent respect for the principle of Article 12. Governments themselves need to develop procedures for consulting children on all relevant policy development.
Article 12:
Respect for the views of the child
1. States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child.
2. For this purpose, the child shall in particular be provided the opportunity to be heard in any judicial and administrative proceedings affecting the child, either directly, or through a representative or an appropriate body, in a manner consistent with the procedural rules of national law.
ENOC was established in Trondheim, Norway in 1997. One of its agreed aims is to promote and support the establishment of independent offices for children in all European countries. It can offer advice and training. Detailed information on existing offices is available through ENOC. For further information, contact ENOC’s Secretariat, provided by UNICEF’s Office for Europe, Palais des Nations, CH-1211, Geneva 10.
