The organisations joined in the Association of German Family Organisations have called for greater focus to be placed on the hardships faced by children, young people and families during the COVID pandemic, as well as on the future representation of their interests in crisis situations.
In the course of today’s general assembly, a very constructive exchange took place between Ates Gürpinar, Member of the German Bundestag and member of the Enquete Commission on ‘Review of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Lessons for Future Pandemic Events’, and the family organisations. From the perspective of the family organisations, the pandemic has led to considerable strain on families, which effects are still being felt today. Many children and young people have lost important opportunities for learning, development and participation as a result of the pandemic. The consequences are still visible today, including in increased rates of mental health issues. At the same time, the experience has become entrenched among them and their families that their interests often carried less weight in political decision-making processes than other – particularly economic – interests.
Families have been particularly hard hit by the pandemic. However, they have also taken on key crisis management tasks – from organising care and education to stabilising daily life under difficult conditions. Yet this role as crisis managers and anchors of social stability has been neither sufficiently recognised nor systematically supported.
At the same time, the organisations criticise the lack of institutional embedding of the interests of children, young people and families within crisis management teams and central decision-making bodies during the pandemic. Even in politics and the media, there were few voices at the time that vigorously championed these perspectives. The family organisations highlight, that a comprehensive and systematic review of the burdens faced, as well as the insufficient consideration of family interests, is necessary. “If serious lessons are to be learned from the pandemic, the experiences of children, young people and families must be systematically reviewed and taken seriously in political terms,” the associations state. “A sustainable crisis policy needs the perspective of families – not on the sidelines, but at the centre.”
The aim must be to work with family, senior citizens’, children’s and youth organisations to develop concrete recommendations that ensure the binding and systematic involvement of these groups in future crises. This includes, in particular, embedding children’s rights and families’ rights to participation more firmly in crisis-related legislation – for example, in the Infection Protection Act and related areas of law.