Children’s Rights Charter in the German Basic Law (Grundgesetz)

Enshrining children’s rights in the German Basic Law (Grundgesetz): background and debate up to 2025

The question of whether and how children’s rights should be explicitly enshrined in the German Constitution (Grundgesetz) has been the subject of intense debate for many years, without any final political agreement so far.

Legal background

Since 1992, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN-CRC) has been in force in Germany and has the legal status of an ordinary federal statute. However, children’s rights are still not explicitly anchored in the German Basic Law.

Organisations such as the Alliance for Children’s Rights – which includes the German Children’s Fund, the German Child Protection League and UNICEF Germany – have been calling since 2007 for children’s rights to be incorporated into the Constitution. (de.wikipedia.org)

Political attempts

• 2018: For the first time, the coalition agreement between the CDU/CSU and the SPD explicitly stated the political intention to include children’s rights in the Basic Law.

• 2021: The Federal Government submitted a draft bill to amend Article 6 of the Basic Law, in order to explicitly include children’s rights. The proposal ultimately failed because the parties were unable to agree on a wording that would both meet the requirements of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and be acceptable to all parliamentary groups.

• 2025: Efforts have been revived: in the federal state of Brandenburg, a petition was launched calling for the inclusion of children’s rights in the Constitution, supported among others by Youth Minister Steffen Freiberg. (jugendgerecht.de)

Core demands

The initiatives for anchoring children’s rights in the Basic Law aim in particular at the following principles:

• Best interests of the child: The best interests of the child should be a primary consideration in all governmental, administrative and judicial actions affecting children.

• Right to participation: Children should have a right to express their views and to participate in decisions that affect them, in line with their age and maturity.

• Right to development and protection: Children should have a guaranteed right to grow up in a safe environment, receive adequate support and protection, and be safeguarded from violence, neglect and exploitation.

Challenges and objections

Despite broad support in civil society, a number of legal and political concerns are raised:

• Protection of parents’ rights: Some fear that the explicit inclusion of children’s rights in the Constitution could weaken parents’ rights or justify greater state intervention in family life.

• Perceived lack of necessity: Others argue that children are already sufficiently protected by the general fundamental rights, such as human dignity and bodily integrity, and that separate constitutional children’s rights are therefore not strictly necessary.

• Debate on prenatal rights: There are concerns that constitutional children’s rights could complicate ongoing debates on the legal status of unborn life and abortion, and that they might be invoked in these highly sensitive areas.

Current status as of June 2025

As of June 2025, children’s rights have not yet been explicitly incorporated into the German Basic Law.

However, civil society organisations, child rights advocates and several political parties continue their efforts to achieve this goal, focusing in particular on:

• drafting a constitutional provision that is clearly aligned with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,

• maintaining a balanced relationship between children’s rights and parents’ rights, and

• ensuring that any new provision is not merely symbolic, but has tangible effects on legislation, administrative practice and judicial decision-making.

The editorial team of this website strives to provide accurate information based on thorough research and a variety of sources. Nevertheless, errors may occur or information may be incomplete or not fully up to date. For this reason, please treat the information contained in this article as a preliminary point of reference and always consult the relevant authorities, legal experts and child rights organisations for binding, up-to-date information.