Children’s rights network on EU child guarantee: “Also urgently needed for children in Austria!”
“Unique opportunity” for Minister of Social Affairs Mückstein to finally improve the areas of education, housing, nutrition and therapy for children!
Vienna (OTS) – Today’s World Children’s Day on September 20th, Minister of Social Affairs Wolfgang Mückstein gave the go-ahead for the implementation of the “European Guarantee for Children” in Austria. A national action plan will be drawn up by March 2022 to protect children and young people from social exclusion and poverty.
“It is so urgently necessary to protect children and young people from poverty and all its negative effects! We have known the numbers and backgrounds for years: from children who have a home, where it stays cold in winter or where it is moldy, from children who cannot access healthy food and enough exercise in everyday life or from children who have to wait months, if not years, for an adequate therapy place. ” refers to Elisabeth Schaffelhofer-Garcia Marquez on the decades-long monitoring of the Network Children’s Rights Austria, the amalgamation of 46 organizations for the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in Austria. It is now a “unique opportunity” for Minister of Social Affairs Wolfgang Mückstein to lead the way in real improvements for children and young people. We are pleased that there is also a Council of Ministers resolution on this by the entire federal government.
The Children’s Rights Network last drew up a comprehensive inventory in 2019 as part of Austria’s children’s rights review before the United Nations, with the aim of reducing poverty and social exclusion among children and adolescents. In this short excerpt from specific demands that have not lost their relevance:
1) Austria-wide uniform needs-based standard child rates without differentiation according to age or number of children
2) Closing the gaps in state maintenance advances
3) Evaluation of the Family Bonus Plus, introduced in 2019, for accuracy of the intended goals and assessment of the effects on groups at risk of poverty, especially children and young people
4) Creation of a child cost study according to current assessment criteria as the basis for all further calculations
5) Introduction of a modern education system: inclusive school with a focus on internal differentiation, individualization, increased support and equal opportunities instead of deficit orientation and selection at the age of 10
6) Expansion of all-day school types for children and young people with free leisure and learning opportunities instead of expensive tutoring
7) Sufficient, free diagnostic and therapeutic offers for all children with developmental disorders and diseases
The entire chapter “Social affairs / poverty” from the supplementary report of the Network Children’s Rights Austria to the United Nations from 2019 is available www.kinderhabenrechte.at to disposal.
Inquiries & contact:
Elisabeth Schaffelhofer-Garcia Marquez
Mobile: 0676 / 88011-1016
elisabeth.schaffelhofer@kinderhabenrechte.at
www.kinderhabenrechte.at