alert Social and territorial inequalities prevent “too many children from having access to school, health or protection services”, believes Unicef France
More than one child in five lives below the poverty line (illustration). — Pixabay/Pexels
More than one in five children live below the poverty line. and more than 42,000 are homeless: France must still make progress to guarantee the rights of children, in particular those of the most fragile, points out UNICEF. Social and territorial inequalities prevent “too many children’ school, health services; or protection,” laments UNICEF France in a press release. published this Sunday, at on the occasion of the international day of the rights of the child.
“The most vulnerable children, whether they are in a situation of extreme poverty, disability, victims of violence […] struggle to survive. see their most basic rights guaranteed,” adds the organization, which is preparing a report aimed at to the experts of the Committee; of the rights of the child of the UN.
Nearly 34,000 children placed in detention
In addition, France has recourse to; practices contrary to the principles of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, such as the administrative detention of children when families in an irregular situation are going to be expelled, denounces UNICEF. Since 2012, at least 33,786 children have been placed in detention, the vast majority of whom to Mayotte and 1,460 in mainland France.
“The situation is worrying, although progress has been made. made. Minors are not sufficiently protected in France. They can’t live their life as children enough,” Adeline Hazan, President of Unicef France. She judges in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche that the confinement of children in detention centers for foreigners must be “prohibited”.
Unicef recognizes improvements since 2016, the year of France’s last evaluation by the Committee. of the rights of the child. It emphasizes, for example, the development of public policies targeted at children. The government has thus launched in 2019 a plan to combat violence against children. It has also put measures in place to strengthen support for the first 1,000 days of the child.
Difficulties in accessing health mental
However, these policies are “very scattered” “their readability” and at “their efficiency”, however, regrets the Unicef which calls for the creation of a ministry for children. In his interview with JDD, Adeline Hazan also denounces the difficulties of children’s access to health mental. “You have to wait six months to a year and a half to have an appointment in a medico-psychological centre,” she laments, yet “the consequences are sometimes dramatic, leading to hospitalize children or adolescents.
As for; social assistance to childhood (ASE), “there are more and more children” entrusted to it “but the average cost of care decreases, and with it the quality of care welcome,” she points out.