Child Participation Strategy endorsed

Date: 14th April 2017
Category: Respect for the views of the child

For the first time, children and young people facilitated discussions at the Eurochild Members' Day to gather views on the Child Participation Strategy, which was formally endorsed the following day at the General Assembly in Brussels.

The Child Participation Strategy aims to engage children and young people directly to put children's rights at the heart of Europe; give them a voice and build a community of child rights advocates. The Eurochild network has adopted this strategy which will see the development of national and European fora for children and young people to influence decisions that affect their lives and help organise events.

The strategy goes hand in hand with a Child Protection Policy ensuring all staff, members and partners fully embrace their responsibilities to protect children from harm. Eurochild members will, in the future, be expected to demonstrate compliance with Eurochild's policy or to have in place their own child protection policy respecting national legislation.

The Eurochild child participation strategy is going to be piloted via three National European Fora in Malta, Estonia and Bulgaria through which children can get directly involved.

At the General Assembly and Members' Day, a group of children and young people advised the membership on the provision of child-friendly spaces and making sure that views are gathered from disadvantaged groups.

Eurochild believes that children's participation is crucial for promotion and protection of children's rights. As they demand participatory approaches from governments, we, as civil society, must lead the way, by embedding children's participation into our own working structures.

• Read the endorsed Child Participation Strategy.
• Read the Child Protection Policy.
• Get the rest of the updates from the General Assembly 2017.