15th January 2008 - Securing Children's Rights throughout the EU

Yorkshire Labour MEP Linda McAvan will tomorrow support proposals in the European Parliament calling for a range of cross-border measures to help protect children.

The “EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child” was discussed today by the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Labour MEPs are calling for:

• an end to sexual exploitation of children by ensuring that sex tourism is covered by extraterritorial laws,
• protecting children from known sex offenders through exchanging criminal record information across EU member states about those who have convictions for abusing children, with a view to using this information to ensure that unsuitable people are not able to gain employment with children,
• an early warning system on child abductions,
• combating the dissemination of paedophilic material via the internet through involving access suppliers, search engines and even banks,
• a mechanism to enable the prosecution, in Europe, of suppliers of products that have been manufactured with child labour,
• an end to all violence against children, including all forms of violence and physical punishment.

The EU provides significant opportunities to help address threats to children. The Lisbon Treaty offers major advances on children’s rights, and introduces the protection of children’s rights amongst the EU’s objectives for both internal and external policies. This will make it easier for the EU to deliver on children's rights.

Linda McAvan says;

“This strategy is a good first step towards tackling some of the dangers facing children which do not respect national boundaries, and builds on early EU legislation. But in future we will need to do more, which is why I welcomed the fact that the Reform Treaty adds the protection of children’s rights to the EU objectives. This will help to ensure that EU laws and policies are child-proofed, and contribute to promoting children’s rights and interests.”