Six ways the Polish Presidency can champion the rights of children and youth in global crises
Plan International shares six recommendations for the EU to better protect the rights of children, girls and young women.
30 January 2025
EU and Poland flags. Copyright: Getty Images. Licenced to Plan International under conditions.
On January 1 Poland assumed the six-month rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU), taking the helm at a time marked by uncertainty, global turbulence and rising geopolitical tensions.
The Polish Presidency also coincides with a new EU institutional cycle. With the new European Parliament already settled in, the new European Council President and new European Commission have now commenced their mandates. The Presidency will thus play a key role not only in shaping the goals and policies for 2025 but also in setting the tone for the five years ahead.
To ensure this pivotal Presidency strengthens the EU’s role as an international political, diplomatic and humanitarian bloc, Plan International shares six recommendations for the crucial months ahead (you can click on each title to learn more):
1. Scale up humanitarian and diplomatic leadership to ensure unimpeded humanitarian access, ramped up assistance and accountability for IHL violations
From Ukraine to Gaza, Sudan to the Sahel, Haiti to Colombia, the wars and armed conflicts raging across the world increasingly involve appalling and devastating violations of international law – both human rights (IHRL) and humanitarian law (IHL).
If the increased erosion of the rules-based international order, and the downward spiral of respect for IHL worldwide are to be reversed, the Polish Presidency must significantly scale up the EU’s political and humanitarian diplomacy. Poland’s commitment to enhance global security as an overarching objective of its Presidency must include galvanising renewed commitment across member states and internationally to uphold the laws of war, end impunity, and ensure accountability and justice for victims.
Across the next six months we count on the Polish Presidency and EU institutions to ensure full implementation of existing EU guidelines on promoting compliance with IHL, using all tools at its disposal, from statements and resolutions to effective sanctions and arms embargos. The EU’s Global Observatory on the Fight Against Impunity, launched at end 2022 to share information and data about genocide, crimes against humanity and serious breaches of human rights, must also become an effective source that spurs collective, clear and accountable actions.
Through its Presidency, Poland can also urge all EU member states to swiftly join the new global initiative launched in September 2024 by the International Committee of the Red Cross/Red Crescent (ICRC) and six countries – Brazil, China, France, Jordan, Kazakhstan and South Africa – to galvanise political commitment to international humanitarian law.
Finally, the fourth European Humanitarian Forum (EHF) in May, co-organised by the Presidency and European Commission, must become a decisive turning point for the EU’s commitment in addressing impunity and ensuring the protection of civilians, civilian infrastructure and aid workers.
2. Increase flexible quality humanitarian funding, address the funding gap and strengthen attention and urgent assistance for neglected crises
With 305 million people requiring urgent humanitarian assistance and protection across 2025, a number that has doubled in just five years, three in five of them will face life-threatening needs. Across the same five years, the numbers forced to flee their homes within their own country also increased by nearly 50%, mainly due to conflict, with 120 million people forcibly displaced last year alone.
To reduce suffering, the Polish Presidency must ensure the EU increases humanitarian funding and improves its quality while urging other donors to act swiftly. Addressing the funding gap and aligning resources with the needs of affected populations—while involving them in funding mechanisms—is crucial for effective, accountable responses, especially in crises like Sudan, where 30 million people need aid.
By empowering communities, enhancing transparency, and ensuring flexible funding, the EU can build a stronger system that saves more lives and reduces suffering. They must do so by building on the 2023 Council Conclusions on the humanitarian funding gap while adhering to the budgetary principles of the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI), the EU’s main financing instrument for external cooperation. This includes reaching their spending targets in the critical areas of human development, climate and gender.
The EU must also continue to prioritise neglected crises such as the Sahel, Mozambique, Haiti and more. The Polish Presidency can ensure this by pushing to increase political diplomacy, humanitarian funding and urgent humanitarian assistance to regions and communities often overlooked in key global responses.
3. Take concrete steps to better protect and support children in humanitarian crisis, including children on the move and those affected by armed conflict
Globally, one in six children now live in or are fleeing from conflict zones. The escalation in the scale and intensity of armed conflict and increasing violations of humanitarian and human rights law have devastating consequences for children’s rights and protection.Exposed to trauma and violence, they are deprived of safety, education, healthcare and other essential services and are forced to face unthinkable violations. This has multiple and lasting impacts on their health, wellbeing and development.
As a generation of children is turned into collateral damage in today’s wars, nowhere was this terrifying reality clearer than in Gaza across 2024. Among the worst horrors of the conflict was the violence inflicted on children, with more than 17,500 killed, tens of thousands more orphaned, buried under the rubble, or injured, resulting in the highest number of children amputees per capita anywhere in the world.
The Polish Presidency must ensure child protection remains a central component of EU action, including humanitarian responses. Advocating for increased assistance to children and girls in conflict situations is essential. So too is the need to ensure accountability and justice for victims, sustainable funding and longer-term support for programmes such as reintegration for those associated with armed forces or armed groups.
Child safeguarding must be prioritized, holding humanitarian actors accountable to children. Integrated, multi-sectoral responses – including mental health and psychosocial support, education, protection, nutrition, and legal safeguards—are essential to ensure no child falls through the cracks. Finally, working closely with the EU’s External Action Service, the Presidency must advance the swift and comprehensive implementation of the newly updated EU Guidelines on Children and Armed Conflict.
Millions of children are displaced each year, often unaccompanied and at great risk. We urge the Polish Presidency to strengthen protections for children fleeing war and persecution, in line with the EU’s legal obligations and international conventions including the 1951 Refugee Convention, the European Convention on Human Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention Against Torture, and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. This includes upholding the principle of non-refoulement, ensuring best practices in terms of child protection are adhered to the implementation of the EU’s new Migration and Asylum Pact. The arbitrary detention of children must be prohibited in all circumstances, as must pushbacks or returns to so-called ‘safe third countries’ where they may face harm.
4. Strengthen EU support for education as a lifesaving humanitarian response while increasing access to inclusive, quality pre-primary, primary and secondary education to meet the Global Goal for education by 2030
Access to inclusive, quality, and safe education is a lifeline for children in crisis, offering protection, stability, and hope while promoting peace and prosperity. Yet, the number of school-aged children in crises needing urgent educational support has surged to 234 million, according to Education Cannot Wait. Despite this, education aid has stagnated, with a $100 billion annual funding gap to meet Sustainable Development Goal targets in low- and lower-middle-income countries.
As the new institutional mandate begins, the Polish Presidency must play a key role in prioritising education across the arc of crisis in the Commission’s agenda. The establishment of the 10% sub-target for education in the EU’s development and cooperation budget offers a strong foundation for future initiatives. To that end, it is promising that the Commissioner for International Partnerships has proposed increasing the level of funding for education to 13% during his confirmation hearing. Additionally, we applaud the EU’s growing focus on protecting education from attack, including the 2023 forum on education in emergencies (EiE), as well as the new Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness, and Crisis Management commitment to EiE and the EU rollout of the Safe Schools Declaration.
In prioritising the EU’s support for education in humanitarian and protracted crises, the Polish Presidency ensure the unique challenges faced by girls and boys are addressed. While boys risk recruitment into armed groups, girls face threats like sexual violence, child marriage, and early pregnancy. The Presidency must increase the promotion of gender equality in education during emergencies by encouraging collaboration with governments and stakeholders to develop crisis-sensitive, gender-responsive education plans and policies. Amid rising violations of children’s rights and limited funding, the EU’s commitment to education remains vital.
5. Prioritise meaningful and inclusive youth participation in EU decision-making
Each Commissioner under the new EU mandate has been tasked with holding an annual Youth Policy Dialogue, the firs within 100 days of their taking office. This initiative is a welcome step to give young people a much needed say in EU policymaking. The appointment of the first-ever Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness and the establishment of the Commission President’s Youth Advisory Board are also important developments to help address the reality that one of today’s most pressing social divides is generational.
It is critical that these new spaces and systems are effective in elevating the power, responsibility and choices of young people. The Polish Presidency can play a key role in supporting the new youth dialogues by championing truly meaningful participation. It will also need to ensure strong youth participation in policymaking related to the EU’s development cooperation, in line with the 2022 Council Conclusions on the EU’s Youth Action Plan (YAP) and its commitments to promote youth mainstreaming in external action.
It is vital that young people can help shape the EU’s external action and help accelerate progress towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Presidency can work with the EU institutions and EU Delegations in partner countries to deliver on both the Youth Action Plan priorities and dedicated Team Europe Initiatives. This requires actively seeking input from and exchanges with young people in all their diversity ahead of EU Council meetings. It would also include supporting and contributing to the creation of Youth Sounding Boards in partner countries.
The upcoming European Humanitarian Forum (EHF) is another key opportunity for the Presidency to contribute to ensuring greater space for the participation of children and young people and ensuring it is meaningful, impactful, safe and inclusive.
6. Uphold people-centred principles rooted in human development for EU international cooperation
Solidarity and mutual support in building a better future for all is essential in the context of international cooperation between the EU and its partner countries. A determined focus on progressing ‘human development’, including through basic services, livelihoods, and the advancement of rights, must therefore remain a shared and central goal of the EU institutions and its member states in this new five-year mandate. Fostering meaningful partnerships among countries, institutions and civil society to address global challenges such as escalating inequality, climate change, the global hunger crisis and conflict drivers, is also critical.
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