The Assembly welcomes the commitment of the Committee of Ministers
to advance children’s rights in this field, including through the
current Council of Europe Strategy for the Rights of the Child (2012-2015).
It recommends that the Committee of Ministers instruct the Committee
of Experts on the Council of Europe Strategy for the Rights of the
Child (2016-2019) (DECS-ENF):
2.1 to
include the issue of respecting children’s rights in decisions to
remove them from parental care in the Council of Europe Strategy
for the Rights of the Child 2016-2019;
2.2 building on the United Nations Convention on the Rights
of the Child, the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2010
A/RES/64/142 “Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children”,
the Committee of Ministers Recommendation CM/Rec(2011)12 on children’s
rights and social services friendly to children and families, General
Comment No. 14 (2013) of the United Nations Committee on the Rights
of the Child on the right of the child to have his or her best interests
taken as a primary consideration, and The Common European Guidelines
on the Transition from Institutional to Community-based Care, to
develop policy guidelines for member States on how to avoid, except
in exceptional circumstances, severing family ties completely, removing
children from parental care at birth, basing placement decisions
on the effluxion of time, and having recourse to adoptions without parental
consent.
