Poland in the Council of Europe

This year’s Warsaw Seminar was devoted to the protection of the rights of the child, in particular in the context of the European Convention on Human Rights and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. The seminar’s topic was selected to mark the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, signed on 20 November 1989.

“While all nations share the values enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, we still are faced with problems such as child soldiers, sexual abuse of children, child victims of human trafficking, forced labour or child refugees forced to leave their homes, families or countries because of war and persecution,” noted Deputy Minister Przydacz. At the same time, he stressed that it is necessary to improve national legislation and put a greater emphasis on education and sensitizing state authorities and courts to the children’s needs.

The seminar was an opportunity to share good practices and experiences concerning the standards of protection of the rights of the child under the Strasbourg system. The participants also talked about challenges connected with the implementation of the rights of the child into the legal order of different countries.

The conference was organised jointly by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ombudsman for Children in Poland Mikołaj Pawlak and brought together the representatives of the European Court of Human Rights, the Secretariat of the Council of Europe, the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law, the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children, the diplomatic corps, state authorities, academia, legal community, and non-governmental organisations.

Warsaw Seminars are a series of meetings devoted to human rights. They have been organised for 13 years by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in cooperation with national and foreign institutions. The seminars provide an international forum for discussion and sharing experiences concerning the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the European Court of Human Rights case law. The meetings are also an opportunity to promote standards of human rights protection and to inspire actions aimed at improving compliance with these standards.

MFA Press Office

Fot. Tymon Markowski / MFA