European Parliament must become a Child Rights Champion, says World Vision

World Vision has congratulated newly elected MEPs. Currently, one in four children inside the EU lives in poverty and thirteen children under the age of five still die every minute of preventable diseases. To mark International Children’s Day on 1 June, World Vision is calling on all MEPs to sign the Child Rights Manifesto and become Child Rights Champions.

Children are disproportionately affected by economic crises, poverty, emergency and conflict situations. Worldwide, 600 million children live in poverty and by 2050, almost 70% of the world’s children will live in poor and fragile countries. Members of the European Parliament have the power to promote a transformative child rights policy agenda during their five year term of office to address this situation.

“Unfortunately, in the European Parliament today, none of its 20 standing committees has an explicit responsibility for children. There is no systematic assessment of the impact of its legislative and non-legislative work on children or any system for tracking what share of the EU budget has been spent on children,” said World Vision Brussels’ Advocacy Director Deirdre de Burca.

World Vision is asking MEPs to ensure the Parliament becomes a global champion of children’s rights by placing children’s rights at the heart of all EU policies, legislation and actions. Also, the new European Parliament needs a new institutional mechanism to specifically promote the rights of children across all policy sectors both within the EU and in its external action.

World Vision believes these commitments can be achieved also if MEPs call for the appointment of a Child Protection Expert to the Cabinet of the next President of the European Commission and the inclusion of a clear responsibility for children’s rights in the portfolio of the new commissioner for justice.

“We look forward to working with the new European Parliament Members to ensure the EU strengthens its profile as a global champion of children’s rights. Only through collaborative efforts can we make children’s voice heard and include them in the post-2015 development agenda,” said De Burca.

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