FAFCE

 Brussels, 20 November 2019

On the thirtieth anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), FAFCE recalls the importance of caring for our children, with a special attention on their well-being through an adequate education. In a context of human rights inflation, it is important to recall what children rights cover.

Children’s Rights are Human Rights
Human rights concern every human person, children included. A child has a right to life, to have a mother and a father, who have the responsibility to care for him. Indeed, as our President, Vincenzo Bassi, pointed out, “since most children do not have yet the capacity to exercise their rights, it is the parent responsibility to care for them”. It is therefore impossible to distinguish children rights from family rights, as a child is directly dependent on his parents. For example, child poverty is family poverty. The difference between those two different “rights”- human rights and children rights - is only theorical. In practice, children rights are the family’s responsibility to care for the upbringing of their child, as the first and essential level of community.

Education and Parents’ Responsibility
Consequently, education is first a parent’s responsibility, as recalled by the Article 18 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child: “Parents or, as the case may be, legal guardians, have the primary responsibility for the upbringing and development of the child.” Parents have the primary right to educate their child according to their religious and moral beliefs, including dimensions of human love and related matters concerning the nature of sexuality, marriage and the family.

Recognizing the role of the family to better respect the best interest of the child
In a context of demographic deficit and aging population, children are the future of Europe. Today’s society has the duty to build a safe environment for them to grow in. States and international institutions need to recognize the role of the family and its contribution to the common good. When celebrating children’s rights we cannot avoid to recall our common responsibility for our future.

Brussels, 9 October 2019 

The new European Parliament is starting its legislative activities and the Members of the College of the European Commission have started to present their concrete programs. During the last European Elections period FAFCE ran the Vote for the Family Campaign, with a Manifesto titled “Stronger Families for Flourishing Societies”. But we also wrote that manifestos are not enough. We need to commit ourselves, as families, and all the EU policymakers to rebuild relationships and community in Europe.

Recalling FAFCE’s 20th Anniversary Declaration - Families’ are Europe’s Treasure and building block for the future (Rome, 31 May 2017), calling on the Governments of the European States to promote and create family policies at the national level and to promote family friendly EU policies, whilst respecting the principle of subsidiarity;

Recalling its Board Resolution for a Demographic Spring (Vienna, 13 April 2018), asking to put the family at the centre of national policies, so that the demographic winter could become a demographic spring and to shape the future of Europe;

Recalling its Board Resolution on Rebuilding Europe Restarting from the Family (Malta, 15 May 2019), inviting all European families to be protagonists of innovative family policies, considering the family as the generative nucleus which gives life to all sectors of the society, in relation to education, economy and employment;

Considering that Parents, or legal guardians, have the primary responsibility for the upbringing and development of the child (Convention on the Rights of the Child, Art. 18.1) and that the family is the hub for social inclusion and the guarantee of freedom;

our Board, gathered in Brussels, invites all the European decision-makers, to establish an European Natality Pact, ensuring that there are no obstacles in public policies, interfering with the personal commitment of parents and with their wish to develop their family, starting from the following points:

1. to seriously consider the concrete and legitimate desire of young people to form a family and the fact that this desire is too often prevented by cultural and economic reasons;
2. to work for a society where families get a fair financial recognition for their service and contribution to society, to ensure that families have supporting infrastructures and enough time together, so that they can realize their desire for children;
3. when implementing the new Directive on Family-work balance, to take into account specificities of every Member State and to adapt it in order to grant a real freedom of choice for parents. Breastfeeding should be ensured and the bonds of mothers and fathers with their children should be duly recognized;
4. To encourage the governments to improve their family and demographic policies, which must be considered as social and economic investments for the future of Europe.