Commission's support to the International Missing Children's Day
For the fifth consecutive year, the European Commission is supporting the International Missing Children's Day on 25 May, organized by the European Federation for Missing and Sexually Exploited Children. The main purpose of the International Missing Children???s Day is to encourage people to think about all the children still missing in Europe and around the world, as well as to spread a message of hope and solidarity at international level to parents who have no news about their children and do not know where they are or what has become of them.
The European Commission has long been concerned about the protection of children and young people inside and outside of Europe. It therefore takes part in this day by distributing to its entire staff the "forget-me-not" flower with an information note.
The problem of missing children is complex and multifaceted. There are different types of and causes for missing children, such as family abductions, endangered runaways, non-family abductions, and lost, injured, or otherwise missing children (including disappeared, unaccompanied minors seeking asylum). It is not possible today to obtain comprehensive statistics across the European Union regarding missing and sexually exploited children. According to the European Commission's Childoscope study on the contribution of civil society in finding missing and sexually exploited children published in 2004, statistics regarding sexual exploitation of children and missing children are generally unavailable in the European Union. Data gathering is seldom organised at a national level and the available data are largely difficult to access and little or no details can be obtained.
However, to give an indication on the extent of the problem in some European countries, the following statistics can be obtained from national sources:
In Italy, police records show that 1,850 minors went missing in 2005;
In Belgium, the number of dossiers reported by the police was 1,022 in 2005;
In the UK, police recorded 846 cases of child abductions in 2002/03, while the total cases of missing children (runaways for any reason) is estimated at 70,000 annually.
The Commission's forthcoming Communication on the Rights of the Child
To strengthen its actions in favour of children and young people, the European Commission issued a Communication "Towards an EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child" in July 2006. The communication proposes a wide action plan, with four major objectives:
- to identify priorities for future EU action;
- to improve EU policies??? effectiveness vis-??-vis the Rights of the Child;
- to increase cooperation with stakeholders;
- to help children to enforce their rights.
Many actions have already been taken by the European Union to protect the rights of the child. During the past years, around thirty Directives, Framework Decisions, Proposals or Green Papers have been adopted under several EC policy areas and with children as principal target, notably related to family reunification, parental responsibilities, trafficking in human beings, sexual exploitation, children in armed conflict, safety of toys, paediatric use of medicinal products, etc.
Most recently, on 25 March 2009 the European Commission adopted two Proposals for new rules to step up the fight against trafficking in human beings, considered as "modern slavery", and child sexual abuse, sexual exploitation and child pornography. These new Proposals replace existing legislation which has been in place since respectively 2002 and 2004. The new Proposals will guarantee full alignment with the highest standards, provide better assistance for victims and tougher action against criminals responsible for child sexual abuse and trafficking. The Proposals also deal with the rapidly changing technologies in the cyberspace. The Proposals will be discussed in the EU Council of Ministers and once approved should be translated into national legislations.
In addition, the European Commission provides funding through a dozen community programmes for actions in favour of children and young people, notably concerning violence, safer use of Internet, trafficking in human beings, sexual tourism, participation of young people in the functioning of democracy, access of Roma children to education, etc.
On the basis of these past actions, and in full respect of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the European Commission's Communication on the Rights of the Child is a formalised framework of the European Commission's work to protect the interests of children and young people and promote their role in society.
The Daphne Programme
The current Daphne III Programme (2007-2013) is the follow-up of the Daphne II Programme (2004-2006), the Daphne Programme (2000-2003) and the Daphne Initiatives (1997-1999).
Daphne III???s remit is wide: to facilitate transnational and multisectoral action to combat violence against children, young people and women. The programme focuses on the victims, recognising that violence constitutes a breach of their right to life, safety, freedom, dignity and physical and emotional integrity and a serious threat to their physical and mental health.
Actions implemented under the programme tackle all forms of violence against women, young people and children comprehensively from the angles of prevention, protection, support and rehabilitation. Violence is understood in the widest possible sense, from sexual abuse to domestic violence, from commercial exploitation to bullying in schools or from trafficking to discrimination-based violence against disabled, minority, migrant or other vulnerable people.
The programme is open to participation by NGOs, local public authorities and institutions (mainly universities and research institutes) from the 27 EU Member States, the EFTA/EEA countries ( Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein), the candidate countries and the Western Balkan states. Actions may also associate other third countries not participating in the programme where this would contribute to their preparation for accession or where it serves the aim of the projects.
Daphne has so far funded more than 500 projects to combat violence against children, young people and women. Details can be found on the Daphne Toolkit website, which includes all the outputs, including multi-media products, of all the projects achieved so far, the publications produced by Daphne, as well as the practical advice on how to prepare a good project.
A common European telephone number for an immediate response in the case of a missing child
Experience proves that gathering information in the first hours after the disappearance is crucial for the success of finding a missing child. The phenomenon of missing children being by nature a cross border issue, it is of major importance for children, parents and witnesses of such cases to be able to dial one short and easy to remember code in cases of emergency, independently of the country in which they reside, as soon as a child is missing or has been spotted while reported missing.
The European Commission has adopted the Decision "Commission Decision of 15 February 2007 on reserving the national numbering range beginning with 116 for harmonised numbers for harmonised services of social value". The decision requires that in each Member State a series of freephone numbers beginning with "116" be reserved for harmonised services of social value. This includes the creation of freephone number 116 000, used in the case of missing children.
Information campaign: three competitions targeting youngsters
In 2006, the European Commission's Directorate-General for Justice, Freedom and Security launched its first Youth Competition, entitled "The European Union and the Rights of the Child". A similar initiative was taken in 2007 with a Youth Competition entitled "The European Union and Non-discrimination" and in 2008 with a Youth Competition entitled "The Right of the Child to Protection".
Each time, children and teenagers from all 27 Member States of the EU were invited to create a poster illustrating the "theme of the year".
And each time, the competition aimed not only at encouraging young participants to perceive and express the idea of protecting, respecting and promoting people's rights in general, and children's rights in particular, but also at increasing their awareness of EU actions in this field.
The best posters have been posted on the websites of the European Commission representations in the Member States and on the Europa website. They may also be used for future European campaigns on people's rights in general, and children's rights in particular.
