Since the adoption of the Charter in 1988 the understanding of what needs to be done with regard to children and health care has grown considerably. In addition experiences confirmed the importance of what we call today "family centred care".

The rights of children in health care services - and not restricted to hospitals alone - have been covered also in the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was ratified by all European governments.
On the other hand, squeezing economic pressures have had an impact on health care policies in general as well as on the situation of children undergoing medical care.
As a further consequence quality standards for hospitals have been or are in the course of being introduced in many European Countries.

The member associations of EACH have closely observed all of these developments. They have come to the conclusion that it might be useful and timely to add to the 1988 Charter more detailed explanations, called Annotations to the EACH Charter. These show how relevant the articles of the Charter still are and how they should be read and understood in the light of the health care situation for children today.

The Annotations to the EACH Charter were discussed and adopted by the member associations during the European Conference held in Brussels in December of 2001.