Ukraine to Focus on Protecting Children's Rights while Heading Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers

KYIV, Ukraine, May 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Having assumed the presidency at the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers, Ukraine will prepare a new strategy for 2012-2015 focusing on protecting the rights of children, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Kostyantyn Gryshchenko, speaking today at the international conference "Combating violence against children: from individual action to comprehensive strategies."

The minister stressed that protecting children's rights is a key theme for every region of Ukraine.

Kostyantyn Gryshchenko also mentioned that "Ukraine's priority during the chairmanship is protection of children's rights through appropriate measures within the Council of Europe, as well as through the actions at the national level that will contribute to achieving the common goal - building the society that will ensure safety of children."

It should be noted that Ukraine assumed the presidency at the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers on May 11 this year and, for the next six months, will focus on such priorities as protection of children's rights, implementation of the European Court of Human Rights decisions, and improvement of local governance and protection of rights of the disabled people.

Notably, the Ukrainian presidency in the CE Committee of Ministers, which will last until November 2011, will be the first for nearly sixteen years since Ukraine has been a member of the organization.

The Council of Europe is an international organization founded in 1949 under the London Agreement with an aim to promote cooperation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural cooperation. The Council consists of 47 member states with some 800 million citizens.

The organization seeks to resolve such problems as terrorism, organized crime, corruption and illicit trafficking. The Council of Europe is supported by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg - a permanent court, which was created to defend the European Convention on Human Rights. The Council of Europe's work has resulted in standards, charters and conventions to facilitate cooperation between European countries. The Committee of Ministers is one of the statutory institutions of the CE and comprises of the foreign ministers of each member states.