738^th meeting – 31 January 2001

Item 6.4 

Policies for deprived children/adolescents and families

Congress for Local and Regional Authorities of Europe (CLRAE)

Recommendation 53 (1999)

(GR-SOC(2001)CB1)

Decisions

The Deputies 

1.         decided to communicate Recommendation 53 (1999) of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe (CLRAE) on policies for deprived children/adolescents and families to the following committees: Steering Committee for Human Rights (CDDH), Steering Committee for Equality between Women and Men (CDEG), European Committee for Social Cohesion (CDCS), European Committee on Legal Co-operation (CDCJ) and European Committee on Crime Problems (CDPC), as well as to the youth bodies, so that they may take it into account in their activities;

2.         adopted the following reply to Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe Recommendation 53 (1999) on policies for deprived children/adolescents and families: 

“The Committee of Ministers has examined with interest Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe (CLRAE) Recommendation 53 (1999) on policies for deprived children/adolescents and families and has taken note of the Final Declaration of the St. Petersburg conference, which it has communicated to the following committees: Steering Committee for Human Rights (CDDH), Steering Committee for Equality between Women and Men (CDEG), European Committee for Social Cohesion (CDCS), European Committee on Legal Co-operation (CDCJ) and European Committee on Crime Problems (CDPC), as well as to the youth bodies, so that they may take it into account in their activities.  It has also drawn these texts to the attention of member states' governments. 

The Committee of Ministers wishes to emphasise the importance that it, like the CLRAE, attaches to the question of children's rights, and points out in this context that it, in January 1996, adopted a European Convention on the Exercise of Children's Rights which entered into force on 1 July 2000. In May 1996 it also adopted and opened for signature the Revised European Social Charter which entered into force on 1 July 1999 and whose new Article 17 deals with the rights of children and adolescents.  But it further wishes to recall Article 7, paragraph 1 of the European Social Charter and of the Revised Social Charter which provide for prohibition of child labour under the age of 15.

Furthermore, in May 1998, it initiated the Council of Europe Programme for Children, designed to chime with the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This programme has culminated in the organisation of a conference in Nicosia (Cyprus), in November 2000, under the theme “Children at the dawn of a new millennium” which steered a new route for childhood policy in Europe.  One of the documents presented at this Conference was a report on “Children living in conditions of vagrancy” which is of particular relevance to the subject of this Recommendation.  Moreover, the Committee of Ministers has included in the Programme of Activities for 2001, a new project entitled “Focus on Children and Families”.

In the context of the above-mentioned activities and of the programme of Activities for the Development and Consolidation of Democratic Stability (ADACS), the Committee of Ministers has devised a number of activities covering, inter alia, the reintegration into families of children who have been living in closed institutions, the introduction of community services for children and their families and the reform of care systems for children in difficulty, work carried out through exchanges of experience and knowledge and through training, on the basis of models of good practice.  To the greatest possible extent, this work has been done in partnership with other governmental and non-governmental international organisations.

The Committee of Ministers has also focused much of its activity on the issue of the reform of the justice system relating to minors, organising, within the framework of the programme of legal co-operation for 1999 (ADACS and OCTOPUS II), relevant seminars and study visits for specialised government servants and judges, and providing expert opinions to local authorities of south-east European countries with a view to combating juvenile delinquency; these have continued during the year 2000, especially within the framework of the Stability Pact. 

Furthermore, the Committee of Ministers wishes to draw the CLRAE's attention on the work initiated by the European Committee on Crime Problems (CDPC), through its Committee of Experts on new ways of dealing with juvenile delinquency and the role of juvenile justice (PC-JU), on reconsidering the possible responses, in the member states, to the changes in the structure of the delinquency and on studying the role of the juvenile justice system.”