Remarks by European Commission Vice President Šuica on Child Rights and the SDGs

Your Excellencies, esteemed speakers, ladies and gentlemen, and, a warm welcome to our young participants and speakers,

I thank you very much for the opportunity to speak today.

“Leaving no one behind” is a principle that guides my work on a daily basis. My portfolio is all about people and it reaches across generations.

Today we are discussing this leitmotif in the context of the upcoming UN Resolution on the rights of the Child, which focuses on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the SDGs.  I warmly welcome this focus.

Children’s rights are human rights, which the EU and EU Member States are committed to respect, protect and fulfil. This is enshrined in the UN Convention on the rights of the child, the Treaty on European Union and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU.

As we slowly emerge from the global COVID-19 pandemic, it is all the more important to strengthen the link between the realisation of child rights, the sustainable development goals and Agenda 2030.

We need to close the inequality gap deepened by the pandemic and focus on the global efforts towards the “Leave No One Behind” approach.

Let me highlight shortly some important work we have done this year in the EU in this regard.

The EU strategy on the Rights of the Child illustrates how EU actions that strengthen children’s rights have a close impact on the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

It lays out very clearly the synergies between the different thematic priorities of the strategy and the objectives of the SDGs.

For example, the Commission’s political guidelines announced a zero-tolerance policy on child labour, contributing to the global efforts to end all forms of child labour by 2025, in line with SDG target 8.7. The EU strategy on the Rights of the Child commits the EU to step up efforts to ensure the supply chains of EU companies are free from child labour.

We have adopted an approach based on the premise that almost all our policies will impact children in one way or another. Therefore, we have taken care to ensure that the EU strategy is comprehensive and looks at all EU policy areas, which are relevant for child rights. This is also how we look at the SDGs.

I can name a few: Gender equality; quality education; economic growth and decent work; climate change; health, water and sanitation. These are only some of the very crucial objectives of the global agenda, which will have a direct impact on children’s lives and on the realisation of their rights.

The EU Strategy recognises the specifc needs of children for socio-economic inclusion. In this vein, we also consider  support to families as being essential.

The recommendation adopted by the Council on 14 June establishing the European Child Guarantee, which complements our Strategy, calls upon Member States to guarantee access to quality key services for children in need and to support their families.

The ultimate aim is to help lift children and their families out of poverty and to ensure an equal start in life for every child. I want to repeat that: for every child.

Investing in children and young persons contributes also to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 1 by breaking the intergenerational cycles of disadvantage.

Equality, non-discrimination and inclusion are a key principle underpinning the child rights strategy. In this respect, the rights and needs of specific groups of children have been integrated into each pillar of the Strategy.

The 2030 Agenda cannot be successfully achieved without children. Children need to be at the heart of its implementation. Therefore, the EU’s child rights strategy has been developed together with children.

For a simple reason: they are not only the future, they are the present. As active citizens they call for climate action, raise their voices to defend human rights and call out injustice where they see it.

Children and teenagers are our agents of change and we must not spare any effort to empower them, to actively listen and create a much needed deliberative space for them. We need to learn how to follow them.

We should all strive to “leave no child behind”. We must reach out to the most vulnerable children: to improve their health, to invest in their education, and strengthen child protection systems. In doing so, we will reach the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

Finally, as much as we all need to work together to achieve the SDGs, the same is true for the realisation of the rights of the child.

The EU is proud to play a key role in the multilateral fora when it comes to protecting, promoting and fulfilling the rights of all children.

We call on all other international, governmental and non-governmental actors to join forces for this important cause, for our present and our future.

As Mahatma Gandhi said it so well: “Be the change you want to see in the world”. So let us all be that change.

Thank you very much.