UNICEF has warned that Spain protects its children “little and bad” and has asked political parties, ahead of the July 23 elections, to be “concrete and ambitious” in their electoral proposals to protect children, girls and adolescents, and that they be “heard”. “Spain still protects its childhood little and poorly,” said the executive director of UNICEF Spain, José María Vera, this Tuesday, at a press conference to present his proposals for the general elections on July 23.

Vera has specified that they are beginning to meet with the different political formations at the state level and that the sensations are “positive” and that the proposals that find a “greater echo” are those of violence and mental health, areas in which the NGO asks the parties to be “more concrete and ambitious”.

As the NGO recalls, Spain has the third worst child poverty data in Europe, with 1 in 3 children at risk of poverty or social exclusion. In addition, Vera has specified that social transfers in Spain reduce child poverty by 9 percentage points compared to the European average of 15 points.

Likewise, it has indicated that 13.2% of minors live in homes with housing overload. “It is a luxury to have decent housing for many families,” he warned. Among UNICEF's proposals, they highlight that investment in childhood be increased to 2.5% of GDP (now it is at 1.6%) and universalize the child-rearing benefit up to 18 years of age..

Violence, a threat

On the other hand, UNICEF warns that 50% of the victims of violence are minors. “Children in this country suffer violence in their immediate, daily environment, at school, in families, on social networks. It is one of the greatest threats to their well-being and it is a number that does not stop growing”, indicated Vera.

In this sense, he has pointed out that Spain has a good law, the Law for the Protection of Children from Violence, but he has said that the challenge is its “implementation”. As he has pointed out, we must make the leap to be “implacable” with any type of violence. Thus, it has urged the proper establishment of the figure of the welfare and protection coordinator in educational centers. “The law establishes that it is mandatory but it has been implemented in a very unequal way between autonomous communities,” explained the UNICEF specialist in child policies, Almudena Olaguíbel..

For this reason, he has indicated that, from the NGO, they are “helping to regulate this figure” and offering enabling “training”. On the other hand, the director of UNICEF Spain has shown his concern for the thousands of children and adolescents who are under the protection system and has called for more determined steps so that minors grow up in families.

Likewise, it has denounced the situations suffered by migrant children, specifically, the “stigmatization and hate campaigns” of recent years. Likewise, it has called for an “urgent and significant” increase in specialized psychological care from the public system since, as it has warned, 15% of adolescents between the ages of 11 and 18 present severe or moderately severe symptoms of depression..

Regarding education, the NGO has revealed that Spain has an early school leaving rate of 13.9%, ranking second worst in the EU.