In the coalition agreement, the Union and SPD have agreed to grant children's rights constitutional status. The draft drawn up by the Federal Ministry of Justice now criticizes, among others, the Greens and the "Aktionsbündnis Kinderrechte".
"Children are not small adults, they have their own needs and their own rights," said Green Party leader Annalena Baerbock the SPIEGEL. For the most part, children could not directly exercise their own human rights themselves. "It is therefore disappointing that the Federal Minister of Justice's bill does not provide for genuine participation rights, nor does the priority of the welfare of the child in state decisions be missing," said Baerbock.
"Reasonable" instead of "essential" - a decisive difference
The draft bill for the law, which is available to SPIEGEL, states:
"Every child has the right to respect, protect and promote his fundamental rights, including his right to development as a self-responsible person in the social community, and to take due account of the best interests of the child in all state action which he directly implements. Every child has a right to be heard in state decisions that directly affect his rights. "The section should be inserted under Article 6 (1), which provides special protection for marriage and the family.
As reported by the Süddeutsche Zeitung, an earlier version of the draft text stated that the welfare of the child should be considered "essential" in all state action that directly affects its rights. In parts of the Union, this formulation in particular was criticized for fear that parental rights could be curtailed.
Can the proposed law make a difference?
Elisabeth Winkelmeier-Becker, spokeswoman for the policy group of the Union faction, criticized the revised draft despite the softer formulation. Paragraph 2 of the Basic Law Article 6 assigns the right to educate the children first and foremost to the parents. It states: "The care and upbringing of the children are the natural right of the parents and their primary duty, their activity is watched over by the state community."
"The state has the role of the guard, who intervenes - and only then - whenever the parents do not live up to their responsibilities," said Winkelmeier-Becker. There should be "no interference of the state in families".
By contrast, the present draft does not go far enough for the Greens. For Baerbock, it would have needed both the participation rights and the primacy of the child's best interests in state decisions to "make a real difference in reality." She called on the Federal Government to improve the legislative process.
Similar criticism expressed the "action alliance children rights", which among other things the child protection federation and Unicef Germany belong. The wording of the bill does not express the child welfare and the right of participation of children and young people. It is assumed that the text will develop in the parliamentary procedure, according to a statement of the Alliance.