María del Río, president of the Si Podemos Canarias Parliamentary Group, has been elected, “after almost 6 years since the signing of the Canary Pact for Children”, president of the Study Commission on the Situation of Children and Adolescents.
This study commission, which will have the presence of experts in the field, which will be launched in September, is one of the objectives of the 2014 pact and, as Del Río has highlighted, “responds to the commitment agreed by all parliamentary groups at the end of the last legislature to create it in the first year of this legislature”.
As Del Río recalled, “its date of constitution was scheduled for March 23, but the outbreak of the pandemic paralyzed the term that we are resuming today” and, precisely, the effects of the health crisis on Canarian children and adolescents will be priority objectives in the work of this commission.
Thus, and taking into account the proposals prepared by UNICEF, the data on children and adolescents will be updated based on the socioeconomic situation of families and children and adolescents as a result of the health crisis and the foreseeable increase in child poverty.
From the new period of sessions, the “relevant” educational issue will also be addressed, taking into account that the crisis has modified the planned itinerary for this school year and the necessary planning for the next 2020/2021 school year, with special dedication to 0-3 year old education and the verification of the existence of a digital divide in order to carry out a reform in the distance education format.
With regard to protection systems, there is a commitment “to initiate the parliamentary procedure as soon as possible” of the new Canary Law on Children and Families, adapted to the Organic Law of the Child and Adolescent Protection System of 2015, and also incorporating everything related to children and adolescents provided for in the Catalogue of Benefits and Services of the Social Services Law 2019
Finally, child and adolescent participation will be addressed in all legislative and regulatory processes that concern them in order to know from their own voices their needs, concerns and purposes.