6^th Annual Conference of the European Network “Cities for Children”

14 - 15 May 2012, Stuttgart (Germany)

Speech by Keith Whitmore, President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe

Mayor Schuster

Ladies and Gentlemen

I should like to thank you for your invitation to address this Annual Conference of the Cities for Children Network.  Regrettably for me, this will be the last time I take the floor here as President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, my mandate comes to an end next October.  It has been an honour and a pleasure for me to contribute to the work of the Network over the past few years.

This year’s theme of child-friendly neighbourhood planning is particularly close to our hearts in the Congress as, a few years ago, we adopted recommendations which invited national and local authorities to design the built environment from the child’s perspective and to develop “compact” urban communities where housing, schools, child-care facilities, shops and businesses are in close proximity.  Our ambition was to make towns and cities more sustainable in order to counter the urban sprawl and improve social interaction.  We made proposals for children’s mobility and for measures to reclaim the streets and public spaces for children and adults, making them safe and child-friendly.  Our aim is to make the urban environment more family-oriented.

I think I can say on behalf of this year’s jury members that we were very much impressed by the quality of projects submitted for the 2012 Award of Excellence.  In particular, we were pleased to note the extent to which children themselves had been involved in the conception of the projects.  Participation has always been an important issue for the Council of Europe and for the Congress.  We firmly believe that all stakeholders in an issue must have their say and their views must be taken into consideration.  All too often, adults underestimate the competence of children and young people, they think they know better and that they should decide on children’s behalf. 

This is not the case in the Council of Europe.  The youth sector, for example, is run by a system of co-management, that is to say youth NGOs sit down around the same table as government representatives and decide together, on an equal footing, on the youth programme of activities.  Young people are the direct beneficiaries of the Council’s youth work, it is only natural therefore that they should have a say when defining priorities.  There is no tokenism, no listening to young people and then doing what the adults want to do.  Adults do not know best what young people need.  As such, the Council of Europe listens to and works with young people.

The Congress adheres totally to this philosophy and 20 years ago adopted a European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life.  The Charter encourages towns, cities and regions to promote the full participation of young people for example by setting up youth councils and parliaments.  I was very pleased to see Stuttgart’s youth council represented at the jury meeting last February and am pleased to learn that discussions are underway to change its new observer status to a full participatory status in the Cities for Children Award of Excellence jury sessions.

In March of this year, the Council of Europe took the importance of child and youth participation one step further.  The Committee of Ministers, our Organisation’s executive body, adopted recommendations on the participation of children and young people under the age of 18.  The Council of Europe recognises that the right to be heard and taken seriously is fundamental to the human dignity and healthy development of every child and young person.  It also considers that the best interests of children and young people must be a primary consideration in all matters affecting them and that the way to do this is to listen to them and give due weight to their views in accordance with their age and maturity.  For the Council of Europe, the capacities children and young people have, and the contributions they can make, are a unique resource for strengthening human rights, democracy and social cohesion in European societies.

These recommendations have been addressed to all member states.  I have brought a number of copies with me here today and I urge you all to implement its provisions in your towns and cities and in the Cities for Children Network.  Fortunately for our European society, we have well and truly moved on from that very Victorian adage that children should be seen and not heard.

Finally, ladies and gentlemen, I should like to remind you of the Council of Europe’s programme to “Build a Europe for and with Children”, a programme which confirms our Organisation’s lead in the field of children’s rights.  In February of this year, a new “Strategy for the rights of the child” was adopted for 2012 to 2015.

The strategy focuses on four main objectives:

• promoting child-friendly services and systems (in the areas of justice, health and social services);

• eliminating all forms of violence against children (including sexual violence, trafficking, corporal punishment and violence in schools);

• guaranteeing the rights of children in vulnerable situations (such as those with disabilities, in detention, in alternative care, migrant or Roma children); and

• promoting child participation.

The Council’s One in Five Campaign, so called because it is estimated one child in every five is victim of some form of sexual violence, one of the worst forms of violence against children, is part of this Strategy.  Sexual violence can take many forms: incest, pornography, prostitution, trafficking in human beings, corruption, solicitation via Internet, sexual exploitation and sexual abuse.  All of these can and do cause serious damage to children’s mental and physical health. The consequences of sexual abuse follow children into their adult lives – lives which first person accounts often describe as lived out in hidden sorrow and pain.

In September of last year, the Congress adopted a Strategic Action Plan to address the local and regional dimensions of this Campaign.  Thanks to their proximity to citizens, local and regional authorities have an important role to play in achieving the aims of the One in Five Campaign, the main challenge being to develop and implement community-based action plans and strategies, and to invest in better services that respect children’s rights.  Thanks to this plan, towns, cities and regions will be able to deliver locally what children and families need so as to stop sexual violence and to bring perpetrators to justice.

I am convinced that your Network can play a major role in helping the Congress and the Council of Europe to achieve the aims of our One in Five Campaign as we are all working towards the same aim, that of building a child-friendly environment that allows children to blossom, fulfil their ambitions and to live their young lives to the full.

We so often refer to children as being our future.  I prefer to look on today as their present, their here and now.  It is today children are living their childhoods, it is today they are children, and that is why we must work hand in hand with them to ensure their childhood is as fulfilling for them as possible.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your attention and I wish you a fruitful conference.