European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights Public Hearing on the Rights of the Child in the EU External Policy

Good afternoon, dear MEPs and colleagues.

Firstly, thank you to DROI Committee chair Mounir Satouri, for hosting this important hearing on children’s rights in the EU external policies and to Vice President Kopacz for championing children’s rights at the Parliament and her words.

We at UNICEF are very much encouraged by the emphasis placed on children’s rights by the European Parliament, and are very pleased to see the Intergroup on Children’s Rights on its way to being re-established in the new Parliament.

We are having this discussion at a crucial time for children globally, as the international community has just agreed to a Pact for the Future. At UNICEF we argue that to build a future for tomorrow’s children we need to meet the rights of children today.

Though much progress has been achieved on child wellbeing and rights, in recent years there have been worrying signs of stalling. Two-thirds of the Sustainable Development Goals on child well-being are off-pace to meet the 2030 target. Around two thirds of ten-year-olds globally are unable to read and understand a simple text. Alarmingly, when it comes to global childhood immunization coverage, 2.7 million additional children are un- and under-vaccinated compared to pre-pandemic levels.

The EU is one of the top donors, and influencers, when it comes to the international development agenda, and it has adopted a Strategy on Child Rights. It bears, therefore, a key moral responsibility in upholding the rights of children everywhere.

And I would also argue that it is very much in EU’s interest to do so. Investing in children in fragile settings, improving their health and their learning, creating opportunities for their contribution to societies and transition to productive adulthood is a sure way to build stable societies, reduce domestic and cross-border insecurity, and give young people better options to unsafe migration.

So, the question is how can the EU place children’s rights at the heart of its external policies and engagement?

Let me start by the EU’s immediate neighborhood, where children of today will be the EU citizens of tomorrow.

The EU Enlargement process provides important opportunities to support child-sensitive reforms that can benefit all children in such countries- whether it is child justice systems, the promotion of education inclusive of children with disabilities and children of minorities such as Roma children, or ending the institutionalization of children. In this context it is imperative to include the implementation of the European child guarantee and the promotion of child protection reforms, in any EU-enlargement discussions and negotiations with EU accessing and candidate countries, and support such countries in their undertaking of such reforms.

In Ukraine, the conflict takes its toll on children’s mental health and their education- a toll with long lasting personal and societal consequences if unaddressed. That is why the EU's reconstruction of Ukraine must go beyond rebuilding schools, health centres, electricity and water systems. It must also build the youngest generations’ skills and resilience by modernizing the education system around 21st century skills, and by improving and scaling up existing protection systems and mental health and psychosocial support.

Further away, in so-called fragile contexts, including in politically estranged situations for the EU, such as Somalia, Sudan, the Sahel, Myanmar and Yemen, children are being exposed to chronic instability, conflict, and violence which leaves large numbers of children caught in a trap of extreme vulnerability coupled with crippling poverty and widespread grave violations.  As crises are often multiple, including climate, and actions need to be contextualized and coherent, the EU must urgently adopt a specific whole-of-EU strategy on its engagement in fragile contexts – spanning across humanitarian, development, peace and climate action. In such an engagement the EU must accept that it will not deliver immediate economic returns, but it still supports EU’s geopolitical interest and lays the ground for an expanded engagement in the future. In its strategy and actions, the EU must prioritise the youngest generations, focusing on the resilience of systems and communities to ensure children access basic services such as health, education and social protection.

In other situations, where the EU seeks to invest and generate shorter-term returns, including by rolling out the Global Gateway, it is important for the EU to continue to engage along its core values- fighting poverty, leaving no one behind and promoting human rights- and for the purpose of our discussion today, fighting child poverty, leaving no child behind and promoting child rights. Let me suggest three main lines of action to achieve this:

1. Support the private sector local manufacturing of essential health and nutrition commodities that can be efficiently delivered to families and children
2. Strengthen health and education systems so that investments made in health and education can reach the last mile children, the most vulnerable, through efficient outreach interventions
3. Include child rights in the 60+ country-level dialogues on human rights and support policy and institutional reforms, and ensure that European private companies participating in the Global Gateway Initiative are compliant with the European Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive.

But all of the above will need to be financed and tracked. 

First, it will be important to protect budget lines in the next MFF that support the EU broad engagement with the rest of the World, beyond enlargement and the reconstruction of Ukraine, and allow for the flexibility needed to respond to humanitarian situations with a long term perspective. It means also considering prioritizing the use of core EU resources in its engagement in fragile contexts, and prioritizing the leveraging of private and other resources in other contexts within the Global Gateway approach.

Second, to perform its budget surveillance function, the Parliament will need to have the tools to better assess budgets according to policy objectives, set up targets for child-sensitive actions, and track expenditures in support of true outcomes for children, rather than outputs.  UNICEF proposes that a child tracker be set up to allow Parliamentarians to monitor budget and expenditures with a child-sensitive lens- including within EU-supported climate financing.

Dear Members of the Parliament, dear colleagues,

Today the future might seem uncertain, but the pathway is clear, investing in children and supporting them to realise their rights is in the best interest of both children and the EU. And meeting their rights today is the surest way to build their tomorrow. 

The Future is now.