The Lancet Child Adolescents Health published the article ‘Strengthening children’s participation in their health: the new initiative of the Council of Europe’ which was written by the TEDDY Chair, Annagrazia Altavilla, together with its colleagues from DH-BIO and CDENF Committees of the Council of Europe.
According to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and other human rights instruments, children are rights holders with progressively evolving capacities to make their own decisions and a firmly anchored right to be heard and participate in decisions affecting them, both as individuals and as a group. As underlined in the Council of Europe Strategic Action Plan on Human Rights and Technologies in Biomedicine (2020–25), on matters concerning children’s health and general wellbeing, there is uncertainty as to how the increased recognition of children’s decision-making capacity should be addressed.
The COE – Committee on Bioethics (DH-BIO), with the support of TEDDY European Network of Excellence for Paediatric Research, released a survey to identify national provisions, guidelines and practices aimed at strengthening children’s participation in the decision-making process in health care, research and more in general in the biomedical field.
The survey is available at this link and will be opened until 31 March 2021. By participating in this survey, you will sustain the COE initiative promoting children rights and their participation in decision making in health.
