prijava
STRASBOURG, November 19 (FENA) - The COVID-19 pandemic has deepened and widened pre-existing inequalities that undermine children’s ability to enjoy their human rights, including in terms of health, safety, education, and living conditions. There is a clear risk that COVID-19 will have adverse long-term effects on children and the fulfillment of their rights, said the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović today, ahead of the 31st anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
“This is a very delicate period for children. As governments devise and implement measures to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 on people’s lives, it is crucial that they make the best interests of the child a priority," said Mijatović.
She said that to this end, governments should seek inspiration from the rights enshrined in the UNCRC, translating them into tangible goals for national and local authorities, and devising specific lines of action to enable children to develop to their fullest potential.
Mijatović stressed that states must strengthen their efforts to protect children from violence, poverty and neglect, all the more during times of crisis, and gear their childcare services to the current health situation.
"It is also crucial that state authorities adopt effective measures to enable children to fully exercise their rights to education and health care, to access reliable information that they can understand, and to participate and be heard. In all of this we should never forget children’s rights to play, leisure time and culture – which are so seriously eroded during lockdowns - and to receive adequate psychological support when needed, said Dunja Mijatović, announced the Council of Europe today.
(FENA) A. B.
