European Children’s Ombudspersons to meet in Athens Mon.-Tue.

Greece will assume the presidency of the European Network of Children’s Ombudspersons (ENOC) following its annual meeting in Athens on Monday and Tuesday.

ENOC is a not-for-profit association of independent children’s rights institutions. Its mandate, as described on its site, is to facilitate the promotion and protection of the rights of children as formulated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This year’s annual meeting will focus on the repercussions of coronavirus restrictions on the rights of children.

Assuming the presidency on behalf of Greece will be Assistant Ombudsperson for the Rights of Children Theoni Koufonikolakou, who told Athens-Macedonian News Agency, “What we want to do is to examine the degree to which these rights of children [as set out by the UN Convention] were violated, and the degree to which children’s points of views were taken into consideration during the pandemic, as well as what we must do from now on – as the situation is continuing – in terms of a rise in poverty and social exclusion, or in relation with the exclusion from school for some of these children.”

Source: amna.gr