The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recognises the disproportionate impact of poverty and social exclusion on Roma children [editar]

Fundación Secretariado Gitano welcomes the Committee's explicit recognition of the specific reality of Roma children, identifying the factors that make Roma children most vulnerable, such as structural and persistent poverty and serious educational inequality, while also making policy proposals to remedy this situation.

On 5 February, the Concluding Observations of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child addressed to Spain were made public, as a result of the review process carried out by the Committee on our country during 2025.

Although Spain has made clear commitments to children's rights through its State Action Plan for the Implementation of the European Child Guarantee (2022-2030), the reality of the data reflects clear situations of rights violations.

The Committee's review, which aims to identify the progress made and the challenges still to be addressed in the area of child policies, constitutes a roadmap for placing children at the centre of the political agenda, prioritising resources, planning reforms and coordinating responses between the various public administrations.

Thus, in its observations, the Committee expresses its concern about 'persistently high and increasing levels of child poverty and social exclusion; insufficient public investment in family and child benefits; cumulative deprivation experienced by children living in substandard housing and shanty settlements, including prolonged lack of access to electricity and basic services, and forced evictions without adequate alternatives; disproportionate impact of these conditions on Roma children.'

In this context of clear violation of rights, the Committee lists a series of recommendations to the Spanish State for improving public policies that can respond to these situations. The main recommendation is the adoption of a comprehensive strategy, with sufficient resources to guarantee an adequate standard of living for all children. It does so through two lines of action:

• The full implementation of the State Action Plan for the Implementation of the European Child Guarantee, with the establishment of a progressive and universal child-rearing benefit, including refundable tax credits, ensuring effective access to it for children living in poverty.
• And increased public investment in children and families, raising spending on child social protection to the European average, with special attention to children in poverty, Roma children and children living in large or single-parent families.

In the case of Roma children, they suffer mostly from persistent and multiple discrimination that affects almost all areas of their lives, with deeply rooted inequalities in the education system, access to housing, healthcare and development opportunities. Added to this is a problem that exacerbates the situation: the lack of adequate data. Without disaggregated information that provides an accurate picture of the situation of Roma children, public policies lose their effectiveness.

In this regard, the Committee makes a series of recommendations to the Spanish State to address the specific situation of Roma children, who suffer, for example, from much higher levels of school failure than other children. The Committee therefore highlights the need to tackle this discrimination through the implementation of ‘affirmative and support measures to ensure that all Roma children regularly attend compulsory school up to at least 16 years of age [...] by strengthening efforts to reduce high school dropout and repetition rates in secondary education.’

One of the measures proposed to achieve this is the development of a State Plan for educational inclusion and against the segregation of the Roma and migrant children, with a timetable, objectives, indicators and budget agreed between the central government and the Autonomous Communities. The Committee also recommends promoting the empowerment and participation of Roma children through awareness-raising programmes and activities aimed at children, families, the community and schools.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child is clear in its recommendations: in order to combat the structural inequality suffered by Roma children, it is necessary to prioritise them in policy initiatives aimed at children; otherwise, their real impact on Roma children will be diluted and the policy will therefore be incomplete.