Ombudsman marks Children’s Day

Celebrating the Children’s Day, more than a ritual in which every year we renew our words of appeal for the respect of the collection of rights long recognized at international and national levels, must be a moment, an opportunity, to mobilize the community, the State, the citizens, to respond assertively to the problems that affect the children of our country.

We are living a unique moment in our collective history marked by a global pandemic that has caused, along with the immense suffering caused by death, illness and separation, profound disruptions in our way of being and living. Despite the uncertainty that remains in the various essential areas of our daily lives, we know that the economic destruction that has already taken place – and that which lies ahead – affects and will affect in a particularly intense way those who find themselves in situations of greater vulnerability.

Children are especially and disproportionately exposed to poverty and the risks associated with it. This fact is recognised by national authorities and international bodies, namely the Committee on the Rights of the Child, with which the Ombudsman, who has a helpline specially dedicated to the youngest, collaborated in the last evaluation carried out in our country.

At the same time, children have seen their educational process strongly altered due to the adoption of the necessary health protection measures, corresponding to the primary requirement of protecting the health of all. They were abruptly deprived of regular contact with their teachers, with their colleagues and friends, with the staff, in short with the entire school ecosystem that is essential for social integration and educational success. In this context, it is important to highlight the effort and dedication of children, their families, but also of national, regional and local authorities which, without prejudice to the problems that have certainly existed and that may persist, have built from scratch a system for the implementation of essential dimensions of the Right to Education.