European Responses to Global Children's Rights Issues:Exchanging Knowledge and Building Capacity

儿童权利已成为欧洲政治、监管和研究议程的中心议题。在欧盟层面，欧盟委员会发表了其《欧盟儿童权利议程》(2011年)，建议就一系列儿童权利优先事项采取具体行动，而欧盟其他主要机构(例如，欧盟基本权利机构)制定了关于儿童权利的指导方针并支持研究。支持这一点的是一些重要的宪法发展，包括《欧盟基本权利宪章》(第24条)和《里斯本条约》(第3 TEU条)，这两项条约都将欧盟在其所有行动中保护儿童权利的承诺纳入其中。同样，欧洲委员会已开始其儿童权利战略的第二阶段--“为儿童和与儿童一起建设欧洲”(2012年)。该战略的主要目标是支持各国政府消除一切形式的暴力侵害儿童行为，保护处境脆弱的儿童的权利。因此，已经制定了一系列欧洲儿童权利措施，包括指导、研究和监测工具，同时欧洲法院正在形成越来越多的对儿童敏感的判例。总体而言，它们代表了一项影响深远的欧洲化儿童权利议程，对欧洲区域内外的国家儿童权利制度的发展具有重要影响。然而，学者、非政府组织和从业人员对这些进展持保留态度。有人对以下问题表示关切：欧洲各机构对支撑儿童权利的伦理和规范框架的洞察力和兼容性；其内部专门知识或法律能力，以作出有意义的回应；它们有责任将儿童权利置于欧洲一体化的更广泛的经济和政治要求之下；以及它们是否有能力应对全球普遍存在的侵犯儿童权利的行为，如武装冲突、贫困或气候变化。还有人对欧洲各机构之间或与国际和国内主要利益攸关方和用户团体合作，以确保制定的任何措施与平行的儿童权利努力相一致并增加其价值的问题提出了进一步的疑问。拟议的系列研讨会将为主要专家、实践者和其他利益攸关方提供一个独特的机会，正面解决所有这些问题，交流关于欧洲儿童权利措施在当地的当前和潜在影响的知识和经验，促进为欧洲在这一领域正在进行的举措发展更统一的理论、思想、法律和证据基础，并探索跨学科调查的新途径。为最大限度地扩大研讨会系列的相关性和影响力，拟议的研讨会主题回应了欧洲一级正在进行的行动优先事项，以以往合作项目所产生的知识为基础，并引入了新的重要调查途径。六个研讨会将讨论欧洲应对以下问题的实质性专题：1.有利于儿童的司法；2.暴力侵害儿童；3.保护儿童作为消费者；4.儿童权利与全球经济危机；5.儿童移徙；6.儿童就业和劳工。第七次研讨会将总结这一系列活动并考虑未来的计划。所有研讨会将提出的交叉问题包括：i.这些措施是否充分照顾到所有儿童，无论他们的社会经济、种族背景、性别、残疾、年龄、国籍如何？我们如何才能最大限度地发挥其对儿童权利和实地体验的影响？这类活动是增加还是削弱并行的国际/国家倡议？如何让儿童更有意义地参与欧洲儿童权利的发展？

Children's rights have taken centre stage on the European political, regulatory and research agenda. At EU level, the European Commission published its 'EU Agenda for the Rights of the Child' (2011) proposing concrete action in relation to a range of children's rights priorities, while other key EU institutions (ex. the EU Fundamental Rights Agency) have developed guidance and supported research on children's rights. Underpinning this are some important constitutional developments, including the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (Art. 24), and the Lisbon Treaty (Art. 3 TEU) both of which embed the EU's commitment to protecting children's rights in all its actions. In the same vein, the Council of Europe has embarked on the second phase of its children's rights strategy, 'Building a Europe For and With Children' (2012). The strategy's key objectives are to provide support to national governments to eliminate all forms of violence against children and to protect the rights of children in vulnerable situations. As such, a range of European children's rights measures, including guidance, research and monitoring tools have been developed, whilst a growing body of child-sensitive jurisprudence is emerging from the European courts. Collectively, they represent a far-reaching, Europeanised, children's rights agenda with important implications for the development of national children's rights regimes both within and outside the European region. Such developments have been greeted with some reservations by academics, NGOs and practitioners alike, however. Concerns have been raised as to the European institutions' insight into and compatibility with the ethical and normative framework underpinning children's rights; at their level of internal expertise or legal capacity to deliver a meaningful response; at their liability to subjugate children's rights to the broader economic and political demands of European integration; and at their ability to respond to the more pervasive children's rights abuses that occur globally, such as armed conflict, poverty or climate change. Further questions have been raised about the European institutions' collaboration with one another or with key international and domestic stakeholders and user-groups to ensure that any measures developed are compatible with and add value to parallel children's rights efforts. The proposed seminar series will provide a unique opportunity for key experts, practitioners and other stakeholders to address all of these issues head on, to exchange knowledge and experience of the current and potential impact of European children's rights measures on the ground, to contribute to the development of a more unified theoretical, ideological, legal and evidential basis for ongoing European initiatives in this area, and to explore new avenues of interdisciplinary enquiry. To maximise the relevance and impact of the seminar series, the proposed seminar themes respond to ongoing priorities for action at European level, build upon knowledge generated through previous collaborative ventures, and introduce new important avenues of enquiry. Six seminars will cover substantive topics addressing European responses to: 1.Child friendly justice; 2.Violence against children; 3.Protecting children as consumers; 4.Chldren's rights and the global economic crisis; 5.Child migration; 6.Child employment and labour. The 7th seminar will summarise the series and consider future plans.Cross-cutting questions to be raised in all of seminars include: i. Are such measures sufficiently accommodating of all children regardless of their socio-economic, ethnic background, gender, disability, age, nationality?; ii. How can we maximise their impact on children's rights and experiences on the ground?; iii. Do such activities add value to or undermine parallel international/national initiatives?; iv. How can children be engaged more meaningfully in the development of European children's rights?