Speaking Points by Vice-President Franco Frattini "Towards an EU strategy on the Rights of the Child"
Summary: Speaking Points by Vice-President Franco Frattini "Towards an EU strategy on the Rights of the Child" (Brussels : 4 July 2006)
some 40 million children below the age of 12 suffer from abuse and neglect. In some countries, up to 40% of children report being beaten by their parents;
Over 5.7 million of children (some even not yet adolescents) work under especially horrific circumstances, including virtual slavery of bonded labour;
an estimated 1.2 million children are victims of trafficking in human beings (UNICEF);
At any given time, some 300,000 (UNICEF) are fighting as child soldiers in more than 30 armed conflicts all over the world;
It is clear that children's rights are still far from being generally respected, even within the Union.
The European Union, with its tradition and its legal and political commitments with regard to human rights, can bring essential and fundamental added value in this field;
The strategy that the Commission adopted today is an ambitious cross-cutting document addressing children's rights in a coherent way;
It concerns both internal and external policies of the Union and covers more than ten of these policies such as civil and criminal justice, employment, development cooperation, trade negotiation, education and health.
The strategy addresses urgent needs and identifies priorities for future EU action, listing the concrete measures that the Commission will take in order to face the main challenges.
I can give you some examples: Attributing one single six-digit telephone number (116xyz) within the EU for child helplines and one for child emergency lines (hotlines) (end 2006);
Speaking about emergency telephone lines, I would like to highlight that numbers such as 110 in Belgium (Child Focus) or 114 in Italy (Telefono Azzuro) have proven to be effective.
Therefore, the future unique telephone number (116xyz) will give to these organisations an additional useful tool to carry out their mission;
Another example : Supporting the banking sector and credit card companies to combat the use of credit cards when purchasing sexual images of children on the Internet (2006-2007);
launching an Action Plan on Children in Development Cooperation to address children's priority needs in developing countries (2007);
The Commission will also design a communication strategy, helping both children and their parents to improve their knowledge of children's rights, in order to raise awareness on children's rights;
For example, a web-site will be created, in collaboration with the Council of Europe, where children's rights will be explained in a child-friendly manner;
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