Council of Europe initiative on children rights participation in biomedical field

If you are interested in participating in an initiative in order to contribute to the implementation of the children rights in research and medical field, the Council of Europe launched an initiative on children rights participation in decision making in the biomedical field.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and other Human rights instruments, recognising that children are rights-holders with a progressively evolving ability to make their own decisions, endorsed changes in the general perception of the autonomy and protection of children regarding their capacity to participate in decision-making. However, on matters concerning their health, there is uncertainty as to how the increased recognition of their decision-making capacity should be addressed. Explore provisions and experiences and practices across Council of Europe Member States is thus essential to develop considerations and common positions. To this aim a survey has been developed including also questions aimed at identifying practices in areas that need specific considerations (such as emerging technologies, rare diseases, advanced therapies, COVID19…).

Here the link to the rationale of this initiative (https://www.coe.int/en/web/bioethics/guide-to-good-practice-concerning-the-participation-of-children) and to the survey https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=grBJPtViSUilsIbtUZKH0jiNS65PNzVIoDGUgTDoK3dUME1LQ0s4RFhRVFFDOEJKTjZSOE1BWUlaTS4u.