Children rights

Children's rights: new priority topic in Belgian Development Cooperation

On 3 May 2005 the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee unanimously approved a bill to amend the 1999 Law on international cooperation in order to include children´s rights as a sector-transcending and high-priority theme for the Belgian development cooperation. Children´s rights are thus incorporated into the law as a central point of interest alongside gender, social economy and the environment.

The bill gives concrete form to a crucial recommendation of the Children's Rights and Development Cooperation Conference which was held in Brussels on 18 November 2004 on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child by Ecpat Belgium, Plan Belgium and Unicef Belgium.

The incorporation of children´s rights into the law on development cooperation as a sector-transcending and high-priority theme is the logical consequence of the UN Millennium Goals, which form the framework for the Belgian development cooperation.

Six of the eight objectives relate directly to children and respect for their rights:
• eradication of extreme poverty and hunger;
• attainment of universal primary education;
• promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women;
• reduction of child mortality;
• improvement of maternal health, and
• combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.