State of Children's Rights

Greece – a member state of the European Union (EU) since 1981 – is a constitutional republic with a Unitary parliamentary republic and legislative authority grounded in a unicameral parliament.

Over two thirds of the total 10.48 million people in Greece (ELSTAT, 2021) live in urban areas, with the two major cities being Athens (4 million) and Thessaloniki (1 million). The overwhelming majority of the population speaks Greek. The Roma population – its presence dating back to the 15th century – currently amounts to 117,495 persons residing in 426 locations across Greece, including 76 settlements (MoSCFA, Registration of Roma settlements and population at the national level). The officially recognized minority in Greece – in accordance with the 1923 Lausanne Treaty – is the Muslim minority of western Thrace in northern Greece, an estimated 120,000 people (MoFA, Announcement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding educational issues of the Muslim Minority). The religious freedoms of the Muslim minority in Thrace are protected by law and enable pupils from the Muslim minority to attend either minority schools or the regular public schools. In addition, a diverse community of 86,600 refugees and asylum-seekers also lives in Greece, mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine (UNHCR, 2022).

Greece has made considerable progress in addressing and improving the rights of children in the country. However, there is an unfinished agenda when it comes to ensuring their full realization as set out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Yearly financial commitments for children and a full spectrum of child-specific policies and actions remain a gap in the country. This, in turn, impacts on the implementation of existing policies that target poverty reduction and social inclusion, particularly affecting marginalized groups. Despite a sizeable decrease in the rate of children at risk of poverty or social exclusion – from 37.8 per cent to 28.1 per cent between 2015 and 2022 – this is still well behind the EU average rate and Greece remains one of the five EU member states with the highest risk for children to live at risk of poverty or social exclusion.

Legislation supporting equality between men and women is largely in place, enshrined within the Constitution. Greece has accepted and ratified declarations on human rights and international conventions aiming at improving the position of women in all sectors of economic, political, social and cultural life. Yet, despite a strong legislative framework, gender equality in Greece remains somewhat elusive.