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Adopted in 1989, the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) was the first international instrument to explicitly recognise children as human beings with innate rights. Ratified by 197 countries, including all EU Member States, it has become the landmark treaty on children's rights, outlining universal standards for the care, treatment, survival, development, protection and participation of all children. The promotion and protection of children's rights is one of the key objectives ...

This briefing follows up the commitments made by the commissioner since 2019.

This briefing provides a pre-legislative synthesis of the positions of national, regional and local governmental organisations on the European Commission's forthcoming European care strategy and related proposals. It forms part of an EPRS series offering a summary of the pre-legislative state-of-play and advance consultation on a range of key Commission priorities during its 5-year term in office. It seeks to present the current state of affairs, examine how existing policy is working on the ground ...

Care work provided in homes and institutions is a public good that is under-valued by society. Care workers are more likely to have low earnings and precarious working conditions. About 9 in 10 care workers are women. Most unpaid care work within households is carried out by women. The 'unpaid care penalty' for women in the EU, which is equivalent to the earnings they lost because of this unbalanced distribution of care responsibilities, is estimated to reach €242 billion per year. EU action in the ...

This year's International Women's Day will, once again, be held in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic, which has exposed and exacerbated existing gender inequalities. To mark the occasion, Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) is hosting a meeting with national parliaments on 3 March 2022, to explore the potential of gender-sensitive recovery policies, spotlighting inter-related issues around unpaid care work, teleworking and wellbeing.

Following research findings on the positive impact of early childhood education, EU education ministers set a participation target for 2030 at 96 % of all children three years and over. This will depend on having enough places that are accessible and affordable. At the same time, the quality of the provision is just as important to reap the potential benefits. This infographic looks at the current participation of young children in early childhood education and what Member States are doing to improve ...

The study demonstrates that the COVID-19 pandemic posed unprecedented challenges to the education and youth sector, revealing the lack of preparedness, as well as reinforcing structural weaknesses of education delivery. Recommendations are proposed for a robust action at the EU level to foster more resilient education and youth sector in Europe.

The EU has been working on reforming family leave policies in Member States since the 1980s. Its efforts resulted in two currently valid directives: the 1992 Maternity Leave Directive and the 2010 Parental Leave Directive. Even though EU Member States’ transposition of the current directives has been mostly satisfactory technically, in 2015 the Commission announced a package on work-life balance which would replace the current legislation. The rationale for the new package is increasing female labour ...

While gender equality policies have been institutionalized and consolidated in Spain until 2008, the 2009-2016 period shows backlash provoked by austerity policies adopted in response to the economic crisis. Institutional dismantlement, budget cuts, legislative standstill, policy reforms with negative gender impacts, and problems of implementation indicate an uncertain future for gender equality policies in Spain. This study maps developments in Spanish gender equality institutions, laws, and policies ...

This study, commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the PETI committee, concerns the situation of people with disabilities in the European Union (EU) and how EU funds (‘European Structural and Investment Funds’) can support the reforms needed to replace the outdated systems of institutional care with community-based and inclusive services. It also highlights areas that must be addressed to avoid the mistakes of ...