Page

Child rights governance

in Greece

  1. Home
  3. Child Rights Landscape
  4. Child rights governance

Enabling Environment

Legislation, policy, resources, coordination, data

Bottlenecks

  • There is no high-level authority accountable for the overall implementation of child rights with jurisdiction across all State institutions.

CRC Recommendations (2022)

  • 5. The Committee recommends that the State party ensure the realization of children’s rights in accordance with the Convention and the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict and the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography throughout the process of implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It urges the State party to ensure the meaningful participation of children in the design and implementation of policies and programmes aimed at achieving all 17 Sustainable Development Goals as far as they concern children.
  • 7. The Committee urges the State party to bring together the fragmented provisions in the current legislation under a holistic legal framework and revise them where
    necessary in order to introduce a comprehensive child protection system. 
  • 8(a) Ensure that the National Action Plan on the Rights of the Child is equipped with time-bound and measurable goals and a dedicated budget for its implementation;
  • 8(b) Activate the National Mechanism and ensure the monitoring and evaluation of the National Action Plan on the Rights of the Child at national and local levels;
  • 8(c) Devise a comprehensive policy and strategy on children that encompass all areas covered by the Convention and allocate adequate human, technical and financial resources for their implementation and ensure that children and organisations working for their rights participate in the preparation, implementation and evaluation of the policy, strategy and action plans.
  • 9. While noting that Greece does not have a permanent body with a sufficient authority and mandate to coordinate all activities related to the implementation of the Convention at inter-ministerial, cross-sectoral, regional and local levels, which may lead to insufficient clarity of roles and responsibilities resulting in overlapping and conflicting initiatives, the Committee urges the State party to establish clear legal mandates to the sectoral ministries as well as adequate resources to the National Mechanism for the Monitoring and Evaluation of Action Plans for the Rights of the Child.
  • 12. The Committee recommends that the State party allocate adequate financial resources to the Children’s Rights Department in the Independent Authority of the Greek Ombudsman to ensure its sustainability.
  • 14. The Committee notes the remarkable role of NGOs in the provision of services to children, particularly refugee and asylum-seeking children and children in situations of migration, and welcomes the establishment of the NGO accreditation to facilitate collaboration with the State party’s competent authorities. The Committee recommends that the State party intensify cooperation with NGOs, including those representing children belonging to the Muslim minority in Thrace, and meaningfully involve them in the development, implementation and evaluation of policies, programmes and legislation relating to children’s rights, and in preparing periodic reports under the Convention.
  • 18(c) Adopt a coherent national integration strategy and undertake media campaigns to promote tolerance, living together, respect for diversity, dialogue and inclusion and raise public awareness about the prohibition of discrimination;
  • 18(d) Publicise the work of the National Council against Racism and Intolerance and ensure that NGOs working on minority issues, including those representing Roma children and children of the Muslim minority in Thrace, are represented therein;
  • 18(e) Ensure that the implementation of the National Action Plan against Racism and Intolerance and for Roma inclusion is monitored and evaluated;
  • 18(f) Strengthen data collection on Roma children, children with disability, children in street situations, children in situations of migration, including those in irregular situations, child victims of human trafficking, and other groups of children in vulnerable situations.
  • 19(a) Integrate and consistently interpret and apply the right of the child to have their best interests taken as a primary consideration in all administrative and judicial proceedings, decisions, policies, programmes and projects that are relevant to, and have an impact on, children;
  • 19(b) Develop and implement procedures and criteria on, and provide systematic training and guidance for all relevant professionals to assess and determine the best interests of the child in every area covered by the Convention, and to give the principle due weight as a primary consideration.
  • 46. The Committee recommends that the State party, in order to further strengthen the fulfilment of children’s rights, ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on a communications procedure.
  • 47. The Committee recommends that the State party, in order to further strengthen the fulfilment of children’s rights, consider ratifying the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.
  • 48. The Committee recommends that the State party take all appropriate measures to ensure that the recommendations contained in the present concluding observations are fully implemented and that a child-friendly version is disseminated to, and made widely accessible for, children, including the ones in the most disadvantaged situations. The Committee also recommends that the fourth to sixth periodic reports, the written replies to the list of issues and the present concluding observations be made widely available in the languages of the country.
  • 49. The Committee invites the State party to submit its combined seventh and eighth periodic report by 9 June 2027 and to include therein information on the follow-up to the present concluding observations. The report should be in compliance with the Committee’s harmonized treaty-specific reporting guidelines adopted on 31 January 2014 and should not exceed 21,200 words. In the event that a report exceeding the established word limit is submitted, the State party will be asked to shorten the report. If the State party is not in a position to review and resubmit the report, translation thereof for the purposes of consideration by the treaty body cannot be guaranteed.
  • 50. The Committee also invites the State party to submit an updated core document, not exceeding 42,400 words, in accordance with the requirements for the common core document contained in the harmonized guidelines on reporting under the international human rights treaties, including guidelines on a common core document and treaty-specific documents and paragraph 16 of General Assembly resolution 68/268.

National Actions

  • Establish a high-level State entity accountable for the oversight of fulfilling the obligations of the CRC and ensuring the development and implementation of a multi-year financed national programme on child rights in line with the EU Child Rights Strategy and other EU policy documents on children.
  • Strengthen the collection and usage of information on children to ensure availability of disaggregated data, including οn equity, to analyse barriers and inform national planning and priorities as well as monitor their progress.

Supply

Adequately staffed services, facilities, information, commodities

Bottlenecks

—

CRC Recommendations (2022)

  • 18(a) Intensify its measures to ensure that Roma children, children belonging to the Muslim minority in Thrace, children with disabilities, refugee and asylumseeking children, children in situations of migration and children of single and/or undocumented migrant parents have effective access to food security, healthcare, education, housing, water, sanitation, social services and a decent standard of living, and ensure regular and systematic monitoring and impact assessment of the measures taken;
  • 18(b) Investigate and prosecute cases of racially, ethnically and religiously motivated crime, punish perpetrators with deterrent sanctions and provide adequate compensation to the victims; establish and promote avenues for children and their caregivers to seek justice in case of discrimination and strongly encourage the reporting of hate crime.

National Actions

—

Demand

Financial access and social behavioural drivers

Bottlenecks

—

CRC Recommendations (2022)

  • 13. The Committee reiterates its recommendations (paras. 23, 26) that the State party strengthen its efforts to disseminate and raise awareness about the Convention and its Optional Protocols and ensure systematic, mandatory and ongoing training on children’s rights to relevant professionals, such as social workers, health workers, teachers, police, judicial authorities.

National Actions

—