Child Protection Agency, the Report to Parliament 2021 online

The Report to Parliament 2021 by the Guarantor Authority for Childhood and Adolescence Carla Garlatti, available online on the website of the Authority, a key figure for the promotion and protection of children's rights established by Law 112/2011, takes stock of the activities carried out and casts a glance at the future.

"The beginning of my assignment," Garlatti explains in the introduction, "came at a time marked by complexities and difficulties for the entire country: I took office on 14 January 2021, practically at the height of the pandemic. A time when, beyond the immediate effects of the health emergency, there was a danger that the very idea of the future would be blurred, in particular for children and young people, especially the most vulnerable and disadvantaged."

The pandemic, in fact, has invested fundamental rights of the new generations: to be protected, to education and training, to play and leisure and to health. A state of precariousness added to structural problems such as the poverty condition of many families. "To all this," reads the Authority's website, "an attempt has been made to respond by launching a period of change.. The PNRR, the Child Plan and the Italian Action Plan on theChild Guarantee for the Vulnerable have beenadopted. Tools, in whose elaboration the Guarantor Authority was involved, which concerned - among others - nurseries, school canteens, educational poverty, equal opportunities and participation of children."

The Report is divided into three parts accompanied by an appendix of documents. The first is divided into two chapters, dedicated, respectively, to institutional relations and international activity, while the second is composed of seven chapters, focusing on the following issues: participation, education, protection, digital, welfare, family, inclusion. Finally, the third part is dedicated to information and communication.

Among the Supervisory Authority initiatives outlined in the publication are the scientific study on the effects of the pandemic on the mental health of children and young people carried out in collaboration with the Higher Institute of Health, the survey on school dropout rates in Italy which also contains a series of recommendations addressed by the Authority to institutions, companies, social partners, professional bodies and the third sector, and the public consultation The school I'd like, which involved more than ten thousand students between the ages of 14 and 17.

"Faced with crises," Garlatti emphasises in the introduction, "we must not tell our children that everything will somehow magically be solved, but we must involve and empower them with us in building their future. Saying this does not mean that we stop dreaming or give up hope, but rather the opposite: it means consciously nurturing it with the participation of all to achieve intergenerational unity, which can affect the implementation of children's and adolescents' rights."

The Report to Parliament 2021 is available both in the dedicated news area and in the "Annual Reports" section of the Authority's website.

Other materials and news can be found on this site under the topics the Guarantor Authority for Children and Adolescents and Rights of Children and Adolescents, accessible from the navigation menu "Themes."