LONDON’S Green Euro-MP Jean Lambert has pledged to be a ‘Child Rights Champion’ in her work in the European Parliament.

Launching a ‘Child Rights Manifesto’ on behalf of a network of European Children’s Charities including UNICEF, Eurochild and Save the Children, she promised to involve children in policy-making, to ensure EU policy took account of the needs of all children, to raise awareness of EU members states’ commitments to respect the human rights of children, and to work with others to anchor children’s rights in the European Parliament structure – perhaps through a single Committee to protect children.

She said: “There are about 100 million children living in the EU – and they make up one of the most vulnerable sections of the population.

“One in four of them live in poverty, and more than a million of them live in institutional care.

“The Lisbon Treaty makes promoting children’s rights an explicit objective of all EU policy – and it’s time to really put this into practice, perhaps by creating a Children’s Rights Committee that could express a view on every proposed EU law.

“I am delighted to have been asked to help launch this manifesto, and I hope all the MEPs elected in 2014 will read it and agree to become Child Rights Champions themselves.”