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The NSPCC campaigns on the European stage by collaborating with partners to influence the policy makers of Brussels to consider the views and needs of children.
When the European Union was founded in1950, the decisions it took were designed to promote economic growth, and hence the impact of this on adults was the main consideration. Whilst the European Union now covers a range of issues, it has been argued that too often children's interests have continued to be ignored. This situation needs to change as children in the EU today face growing cross border challenges that threaten their security.
The European Children's Network (EURONET) is a coalition of groups campaigning for the interests and rights of children (defined in the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as all persons under 18 years of age).
EURONET was established in 1995, with the NSPCC being one of its founding members and, now a Board Member. The European Children's Network currently consists of 34 members and includes the International Save the Children Alliance - Europe Group.
Members of EURONET share a common concern that children's rights should be taken into account in all EU legislation, policies and programmes which have an impact on children.
In July 2006 the European Commission announced that it would develop the first ever EU Children's Strategy. This is the first time the EU has clearly acknowledged the need for a comprehensive strategy to ensure that all of its activities work to protect children's rights.
The strategy will include a new European Forum for the Rights of the Child. This will:
EURONET is calling on the EU to adopt a broad approach when developing the EU Children's Rights Strategy. It should be sufficiently resourced and based on expert advice.
The European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee will prepare a report on the progress of the EU Children's Rights Strategy in 2007.
The EU's open borders have made it easier for sex offenders to move from country to country and gain access to vulnerable children.
The NSPCC is calling for the urgent establishment of a European index of sex offenders, and a system in place, which ensures the rapid circulation of information on sex offenders throughout EU member states.
The NSPCC is a member of ECPAT UK (End Child Pornography, Child Prostitution and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Exploitation) organisation which campaigns against the commercial sexual exploitation of children in the UK.
The NSPCC is calling for the European Parliament to highlight the need for better protection of child victims of trafficking, and also to examine the international factors that led to these children arriving into the UK and other EU member states.
The NSPCC believes that the EU has the opportunity to set a global example of countries working together to try to prevent the explosion of online images of child pornography and on ways to identify and protect its victims.
The NSPCC is part of CHIS (The Children's Charities' Coalition for Internet Safety). CHIS works closely with its European partners to raise awareness of this abuse, and is calling on European policy makers to take urgent action to protect Europe's vulnerable children.
The NSPCC has been actively calling for the establishment of a European child helpline number, and welcomed the European Commission's proposals to reserve at European level, a chosen number for child helplines.
The NSPCC would now like to see the European Commission undertake a study which will involve all those with an interest, including children and child helplines from across Europe, so that a successful European child helpline can be launched as soon as possible.
www.europeanchildrensnetwork.org
www.keepingchildrensafe.org.uk
www.childhelplineinternational.org
(1) The international agencies involved were Save the Children, Oxfam, World Vision, Tearfund, Everychild, Plan, Terre des Hommes, People in Aid and the Consortium for Street Children.
Copyright © 2006 NSPCC - All rights reserved. National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Weston House, 42
Curtain Road, London EC2A 3NH. Incorporated by Royal Charter. Registered charity number 216401. NSPCC, charity registered in Scotland, charity number SC037717.