Strengthening children's rights: Reforms planned despite the financial crisis!

Strengthening children's rights: Reforms planned despite the financial crisis!

In a current discussion about family reunification in Austria, children's and youth lawyers are critical of the proposed regulations. As vienna.at , the children's attorney calls for these regulations to be checked beforehand for their agreement with the Child Rights Convention and the Federal Constitutional Act on the rights of children. This is particularly important to ensure that the rights of the children are not affected by administrative hurdles. In addition, the need for a step plan for schools was emphasized in order to have clear guidelines for possible suspenders. The child and youth lawyer Fellinger warned that suspenders should never be seen as a disciplinary measure, but only in real emergencies to protect everyone involved.

The Ministry of School in North Rhine-Westphalia has also taken significant steps to promote children's rights. As the ministry stated in a message, a cooperation agreement with Unicef ​​was signed to expand the program of the children's rights schools. The aim is to anchor democratic participation processes in primary school, such as school parliaments and class councils. Minister Dorothee Feller emphasized the importance that children know their own rights to actively stand up for them. In addition, a new democratic portal was set up, which serves schools as a central point of contact in order to find out about and participate in democracy education. These initiatives aim to strengthen children and adolescents and to enable them to have more say within their school communities, as School Ministry.

These developments show the social responsibility of giving children and young people a voice in both Austria and Germany and at the same time creating the necessary structures that enable them to learn and grow in a protected and supportive environment. The due strengthening of children's rights is considered a central step, not only to counteract existing challenges, but to shape a positive, democratic future in which the rights of every child are respected.