Development of EU Child Rights Indicators

The primary objective of this research project, commissioned by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency has been the development of child rights-based indicators for the assessment of EU legislation and policy. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child provides for a general framework both in terms of child rights standards, but also for its assessment, including the development of indicators.This framework was complemented by expertise from modern childhood studies and a sociological perspective on childhood, while at the same time respecting the boundaries of existing EU competence in legislation and policy-making. Consequently, indicators have been developed in four key domains: family relations (EU legislation on parental custody, family reunification and migration); child protection (protection from child trafficking, sexual and economic exploitation of children, violence against children); adequate standards of living/child poverty; and education (accessibility, citizenship and participation).

Among the key challenges encountered have been the general lack of child-centered data in many areas as well as difficulties in terms of data comparability – partly due to the concept of child/human rights indicators as not only measuring sociological outcomes (e.g. poverty distribution), but also structural and process dimensions (e.g. existence of specific legislation, policies etc) of the living conditions of children.