Children and youth must be consulted when adopting policies that affect them and the exercise of their rights – was highlighted at a two-day conference hosted by the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children (ENOC) in the work of which Ms. Jelena Stojanović, the Deputy Protector of Citizens for Child Rights and Gender Equality, participated.
Ms. Stojanovic, in the discussion on the impact of new measures and laws on the rights and needs of children and youth, stressed that it was vital that decision makers in each country "look through the prism" of child rights and always think, when designing changes through new legal solutions or measures, whether and in what way the new changes will impact the life of every individual child.
Due to the epidemiological situation, the annual conference of the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children was organized online on 21 and 22 September.
The conference saw a presentation of ENOC’s study on how much the states, when adopting new measures and legislation, have been taking into account the extent to which the changes will affect the rights, needs and interests of children and youth.
The members believe that prior to adopting measures, new policies, new regulations or amending the existing ones, the States must first assess how and to what extent all these changes will impact child rights (CRIA – Child Rights Impact Assessment), and then to evaluate the impact of the adopted amendments on child rights (CRIE - Child Rights Impact Evaluation).