Federal Council wants to strengthen children’s rights
Published: Friday, Dec 15th 2023, 12:30
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A national children's rights organization is to inform children about their rights in future. The Federal Council submitted a corresponding amendment to the ordinance for consultation on Friday. The aim is to strengthen children's rights.
According to the Federal Council, an amendment to the Ordinance on the Promotion of Extracurricular Work with Children and Young People (KJFV) is intended to create the basis for assigning corresponding tasks to a suitable organization.
According to the Federal Council, these tasks include providing specialist knowledge, implementing children's rights, advising authorities and networking actors in the field of children's rights.
In doing so, the Federal Council wants to meet the main objective of the "Ombudsman's Office for Children's Rights" motion by former member of the Council of States Ruedi Noser (FDP/ZH) to support children throughout Switzerland in exercising their rights, as he wrote in the press release.
Gaps in the current system
However, the Federal Council stated in a report that this would not create a national ombudsman's office that is independent and acts as a counseling and mediation office for children and their caregivers. Nevertheless, the proposed solution would contribute to the main aim of the motion to support children throughout Switzerland in exercising their rights. At the same time, it would help to close the gaps in the system.
According to the report, a review commissioned by the Federal Social Insurance Office (FSIO) has shown that there are major gaps in the current system in the area of children's rights. According to this study, children generally receive inadequate support when lodging complaints with authorities and courts, and legal remedies are not accessible enough for children and are not child-friendly.
Among other things, this concerns the right to co-determination of young people and children in legal proceedings, such as divorce or withdrawal of custody.
The consultation on the revision of the ordinance will last until March 29, 2024.
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