On 22 September, the Conference 35 anos da Convenção sobre os Direitos da Criança em Portugal took place at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. The event aimed to celebrate and strengthen the commitment to Children’s Rights and was organised with the participation of several institutions, including the Instituto de Apoio à Criança (Institute for Child Support), UNICEF, the Nursing School of Lisbon, and the Portuguese Society of Paediatrics.
This conference brought together experts in education and health as well as a panel with children and young people. It was a moment of reflection and renewed commitment to the full realisation of the rights of all children.
NOVA School of Law was represented by Professor Teresa Pizarro Beleza and Professor Odete Severino Soares, acting respectively as moderator and speaker on the Panel 35 Years of the Ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Portugal. Their intervention presented a reflection on some of the main observations addressed to Portugal by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child during its last review in September 2019, assessing the degree of compliance with Portugal’s obligations in implementing the Convention, as well as identifying—though not exhaustively—Portugal’s current and future priorities regarding children’s rights, the fulfilment of which will contribute to the realisation of those rights.
During the event, the book Os Direitos da Criança em Contextos de Saúde em Portugal (Children’s Rights in Healthcare Contexts in Portugal) was also presented. Conceived and developed by several authors from different fields, the work seeks to reflect reality in its multiple dimensions: the right to health, to information and participation, and to protection from all forms of violence, as well as rights in the context of contemporary challenges, such as the climate emergency, while giving voice to both the newborn and the adolescent.
Acknowledging the dynamic nature of rights, within a complex system of ongoing and emerging challenges, the conference reaffirmed the urgency of strengthening joint action and investment in childhood, placing children’s rights at the heart of public policies and the social agenda.