Reaction to the veto on the EU Child Rights Strategy

We are dismayed by the veto of EU Child Rights Strategy at yesterday’s meeting of EU Justice Ministers.
All 27 EU countries have signed up to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Children’s rights are indivisible and cannot be cherry-picked. All rights belong to all children.

We count on the French EU Presidency to gather support of all EU Countries and commit the EU Council to protecting rights of the child.

Eurochild celebrated the European Commission’s proposal of the EU Strategy of the Rights of the Child earlier this year.  It is a strong comprehensive framework for the protection of the rights of the child. In particular, it took account of the voices of children themselves. 

Hintalovon's reaction

Eurochild member from Hungary, Hintalovon has released a statement which highlights how "Hungary still has serious shortcomings in complying with the Convention and its public awareness. [...] The Hungarian government has vetoed the adoption of the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child by citing “school propaganda of LGBTQ activists” as a reason, even though this issue is not even mentioned in the strategy."

Child Rights Action Group

As a member of the CRAG, Eurochild co-signed the Child Rights Action Group joint statement asking EU Member States to commit to the rights of all children in and outside the EU: "We cannot accept that children in the EU and across the world are left hostages to political infighting. We urgently call on the Council of the EU to express a strong and clear commitment to the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child."

The Hungarian Petition

On 9 October the Hungarian Child Rights NGO Coalition released a statement urging the representatives of the Hungarian Government to change their viewpoint in order to protect the rights of Hungarian and all children and launched a petition for the adoption and implementation of the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child.
Read the Hungarian statement here.

The Intergroup: A major setback for children in Europe: children's rights are not negotiable

The Child Rights Intergroup released a statement calling for on the European Commission, as the guardian of the Treaties, to:

• Do its utmost to ensure that EU Law is fully respected across our Union and that EU children are not held hostage by a political propaganda;
• Fully implement all actions and initiatives as laid out in the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child adopted on 24 March 2021

"It is absolutely unacceptable that two Member States of our Union vetoed the adoption of the Council Conclusions on such an unprecedented and crucial strategy on the basis of an overtly homophobic rhetoric, which aims to set our Union back, contravening the EU Treaties and ultimately damaging the very children it claims to protect." - says the statement.

Learn more about the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child and the children’s consultation