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Society: Child Protection Association President: Children’s rights in the Basic Law | STERN.de

Society: Child Protection Association President: Children’s rights in the Basic Law |  STERN.de

Heinz Hilgers is retiring after 30 years as President of the Child Protection Association. He would like more equal opportunities and hopes that children’s rights will eventually be enshrined in the Basic Law.

Shortly before leaving office after 30 years, the outgoing President of the Child Protection Association, Heinz Hilgers, appealed to society to ensure more equal opportunities.

“Every child in our country has talents, regardless of whether they have a disability, whether they have a migration background, whether they are girls, boys or diverse, whether they come from a poor or rich family,” he told the German Press Agency. “My best wish would be that we create living conditions that allow every child to develop these talents.”

From a historical perspective, the majority of children in Germany are doing better than ever before and also better than in most other countries in the world, said Hilgers. This applies to two thirds to three quarters of the children. “Unfortunately, that doesn’t apply to the others.” Hilgers referred to child poverty and, against this background, campaigned for the project to provide basic child security.

“Children are an emotional enrichment”

Hilgers himself has three adult sons and a five-year-old granddaughter, whom he is very happy about, as he said in an interview with dpa. He cannot understand the statement sometimes made that children cannot be placed in this world. Children are an emotional enrichment. “The right idea is to try to change the world, first in your own environment, then in the country and in politics, so that the children can have a happy and good future.”

The outgoing Child Protection Association President was generally satisfied with what was achieved during his presidency and referred, for example, to the “parental right to discipline” that was removed from the Civil Code more than 20 years ago and replaced by a right for children to a non-violent upbringing . “This has certainly changed behavior towards children in society as a whole.”

According to Hilgers, however, the fight against child poverty and increased prevention of physical violence against children remain important areas in child policy. “Emotional violence, emotional blackmail, psychological pressure and mental injuries” are also terrible.

Support for planned basic child security

It is very important to him that children’s rights are explicitly anchored in the Basic Law. “The Basic Law is more than just a collection of paragraphs. It is our nation’s model. And if children’s rights are missing, then something is wrong with the model.” One must demand that the Bundestag and Bundesrat commit to this with a two-thirds majority and change the Basic Law accordingly.

Hilgers, himself a member of the SPD, supports the basic child security plan planned by the traffic light coalition, in which various state benefits for children are to be brought together and better achieved by those in need. The Child Protection Association has been campaigning for this together with other organizations for years.

With a view to the dispute in the traffic light about the financing of the project, he referred to the three-digit billion packages for the Bundeswehr and to mitigate the high energy prices. “And now it fails because of an amount of 12 billion?” This is not a question of finances, but a question of attitude.

What can adults learn from children? “The honesty, carelessness and this wonderful way of discovering and learning again and again,” said Hilgers.

Source: Stern

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