ENOC 2023 ENYA FORUM

As part of its 2021 Annual work, ENOC organised the first round of discussion on the issue of "COVID-19: learning for the future" on the occasion of a working seminar that took place online (due to the COVID-19 situation) on 1 June 2021.

Children across Europe may not have experienced high rates of mortality during the pandemic, but they have shouldered the burden of many restrictions and the infringement of many of their human rights. ENOC’s mission to ensure that the rights of all children, as guaranteed by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, are respected is even more important during the COVID-19 crisis. ENOC thus decided to extensively work on “COVID-19: learning for the future” in 2021 to ensure that in the future, governments and European and international authorities do all they can to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of the child when designing and implementing emergency measures.

This Seminar was the opportunity for participating ENOC members to share their knowledge, discuss and prepare the basis of the future ENOC Statement on the working theme. The event started with a presentation from George Nikolaidis, Director of the Department of Mental Health and Social Welfare at the Institute for Child Health in Athens, on the impact of the pandemic and related measures on children’s mental health and on domestic violence. Then, the two experts supporting the ENOC’s work on “COVID-19: learning for the future”, Pr. Simon Hoffman and Rhian Croke, presented key findings of the survey mapping the impact of emergency measures introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s rights in ENOC member states. This was followed by an update on the ENYA project and initial feedbacks from young people, and by a discussion on the first draft of the ENOC Position Statement and how to better uphold children’s rights in times of pandemic, global crisis or public health emergency.

Part 1 of the ENOC Seminar was organised with the support of the Deputy Ombudsperson for Children in Greece, who is leading the work on “COVID-19: learning for the future”, supported by two external independent expert advisors, Pr. Simon Hoffman and Rhian Croke.

On the same occasion, ENOC held a capacity building session on the ENOC Standards and Values on 4 July 2021. A working group was established at ENOC’s 2020 Annual General Assembly meeting to agree on the values and standards that should be upheld by ENOC members at all times along with a process for addressing situations where consensus cannot be reached. This online session was the occasion to discuss the first draft of ENOC Standards and Values prepared by the Working Group.

Part 2 of the ENOC Seminar was organised with the support of the Ombudsman for Children in Ireland who is chairing the Working Group on ENOC Standards and Values.

Related materials:

Agenda Part 1 - COVID-19: learning for the future

Agenda Part 2 - ENOC Standards and Values

Presentation of George Nikolaidis, Director of the Department of Mental Health and Social Welfare at the Institute for Child Health in Athens, "Challenges for children's rights and their safeguarding in the era of the pandemic""Challenges for children's rights and their safeguarding in the era of the pandemic"

Presentation of Pr. Simon Hoffman and Rhian Croke, Key findings of the Synthesis Report - Mapping the impact of emergency measures introduced in responses to the COVID-19 pandemic on children's rights in ENOC member states