Children should be protected from the consequences of the economic crises, says Commissioner Hammarberg
[24/04/09] "Child poverty was already before the current crisis an acute problem in large parts of Europe" said Commissioner Hammarberg today at a UNICEF-sponsored conference at the State University of Moscow. "Now there is a serious risk of further degradation. We see already that allocations for children are cut in state budgets", he said in his lecture.
"This is the wrong policy. It is particularly important to protect the rights of the child during this period. Governments invest in the interest to the maximum extent of the available resources" the Commissioner said, referring to states' obligations spelled out in UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
At the same meeting in Moscow the third Janusz Korczak lecture was presented in honour of the pediatrician, writer and educationalist who was murdered by the Nazi regime together with 190 children from the orphanage in the Warsaw ghetto. The lecturer was Professor Marina Gordeeva, Director of the Fund for Russian Children in Need, who spoke about measures to close the large and unfriendly child institutions.
