SIGNIS joined with other NGOs lead by the AVSI Foundation and the International Catholic Child Bureau (BICE) to submit a written statement (A/HRC/16/NGO/11) to 16th session of the UN Human Rights Council on the right to education education of street children.
The following are extracts from the document. The full version is available here.
....it is hard to determine the exact number of children working and/or living on the street worldwide, according to UNICEF estimation, they represent around 100 million children, whose fundamental rights are constantly violated. In particular, they are quite systematically denied the right to education though, up to now, the issue has not raised much awareness among society nor relevant intervention from public authorities.....
The signatories NGOs call for a genuine conceptual revolution about street children and about the objectives of education. When children live and/or work in the street this should only be considered as a phase in their lives, and not as a permanent state. We would like to underline that it should be taken and tackled as a situation and not regarded as an identity, and those at stake are still “children” and neither “criminals” nor “beggars”.....
....education should be provided without discrimination to all children with the means to fulfil their potential in society, to become positive social actors while also developing their own resources and abilities.....
We also recommend that the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child elaborate a General Comment on the “Rights of children living and/or working in the street” so as to deepen the reflection on the issue, and define the different causes and consequences of the phenomenon, in a right to education-oriented perspective.