COMMITTEE ON RIGHTS OF CHILD TAKES UP REPORT OF GERMANY
Press Release
HR/4209
COMMITTEE ON RIGHTS OF CHILD TAKES UP REPORT OF GERMANY
19951108 GENEVA, 6 November (UN Information Service) -- The implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by Germany was examined this morning when the Committee on the Rights of the Child took up that country's initial report. The German delegation told the Committee that the federal structure of the Government had rendered it more difficult to implement the provisions of the Convention in the whole territory.The leader of the German delegation, Alois Jelonek, told the Committee that children in Germany often lacked sufficient personal attention as well as a sense of security and belonging.
The German delegation also included Reinhard Wabnitz, Director General, Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth; Jürgen Haberland, First Counsellor, Federal Ministry of the Interior; Michael Gebauer, Counsellor, Federal Ministry of Justice; and Ulrich Rosengarten, Michael Schaefer, Christian Hellbach and Ariane Reinhart, all from the Permanent Mission, Geneva.
Examination of Report
Mr. Jelonek, introducing the initial report, told the Committee that because of his country's relatively prosperous situation, the material benefits of most children, juveniles and their families were far better than they had been in earlier decades. Tremendous progress had been made in many areas of social and educational policy in recent years. However, children often missed personal attention as well as a warm feeling of security and belonging. Not infrequently they suffered from separation, divorce or the unemployment of their parents, or from relative poverty. There was still much to be done before the country shaped a society that was friendly to children in every respect.
The adoption of the Convention had given impetus to the gradual development of the policy on children into a distinct area of attention in recent years. The Youth Welfare Act formerly in effect was revised and given the name Child and Youth Services Act. The Federation's most important instrument for promoting youth services, the former Federal Youth Plan was revised, elaborated and renamed the Federal Child and Youth Plan. Starting in
- 2 - Press Release HR/4209 8 November 1995
1996, the allocation of an additional 7 billion deutsche marks per year would noticeably improve child benefits and a number of othe111r family-related benefits. From that year, every child in Germany would have the legal right to a place in a kindergarten.
Mr. Wabnitz, responding to questions in the list of issues to be taken up in considering the report, said that there was some divergence between the Convention and national legislation. On notification, publication and dissemination of the Convention, sufficient publicity was accorded to it through different means, including the media.
As to its coordination and monitoring, he indicated that there was difficulty in fully implementing the provisions of the Convention in all parts of Germany because of the federal structure of the country. The Länder and the communities under them were mainly responsible for the application of the Convention. The Federal Government did not have power to supervise the application of the Convention by the Länder because of separation of power. There was a complex of power between the Federal Government and the Länder; the former hardly gave instructions because of the principle of non-interference in the affairs of the autonomous regions. However, he added, a lot had to be done in reforming the legislative system to give an important place to the rights of the child.
Mr. Haberland stressed that Germany had made significant changes in the area of family reunification. The January 1991 legal act had given foreigners and their kin certain legal claims and rights in matters of family reunification. A foreigner or any asylum-seeker living in Germany had the right to bring into the country his or her children up to sixteen years of age and who were living abroad. In some cases, that age limit could go up to eighteen. Germany believed that families should live together and it did all it could to keep them together. Since that legal act became effective, the problem of family reunification had decreased.
With regard to naturalization, he said legal entitlements were introduced to facilitate the naturalization of children and youth who were born in Germany and those children who had lived in the country for 15 years. The naturalization procedure had been made easier and the fee reduced to the minimum. There was also a plan to accord citizenship to children from the age of twelve until they renounced their original nationality at the age of nineteen.
* *** *