Children’s rights at the heart of the Marist mission in Catalonia

The “Rights of the Child” section of the Hermitage Province’s Maristes.cat site is growing in size and content. The team working to promote the rights of the child has given a larger space to a page that already existed and has given it a more complete structure, where the project in favour of the defence of the rights of the child takes on a dimension that is coherent with the Marist educational project.

This new section, among others, presents the Marist institutional policy in this framework, the account of how rights function in educational works, the formation that is carried out in various domains, the processes of certification in which the Marists of Catalonia are immersed or the external distribution that the work in the defence of the rights of children has. It maintains other existing points, among others, the channel of contact with the Child Protection Team.

The rights of children in schools and in social works in the Province of L’Hermitage

Catalonia is part of the Hermitage Province, which includes Catalonia, France, Hungary, Greece and Algeria. The Province works in a coordinated manner in the area of protection and since 2013 has had a policy of action aimed, in a decisive and committed manner, at promoting and protecting the rights of children and young people. Always from a change of perspective that considers children as subjects of their own rights.

The professionals of the Marist educational works in the province are in constant formation and work because both in schools and in social services children and young people can find an atmosphere of sufficient confidence so that they can tell openly if they perceive or realise that they may be victims of abuse. In order for them to be able to perceive it, in the schools and social services there are sessions adapted to each age group (from 3 to 18 years of age) that permit, on the one hand, to make children and young people aware of the subject of sexual abuse, and on the other hand, to put within their grasp the tools that have been developed from the school to inform and report any situation of sexual abuse in which they may find themselves.

This intense experience in favour of children’s rights in schools and social work is on the way to being officially certified by two international institutions of special solvency in this field, such as UNICEF and Keeping Children Safe.