Bice's Appeal for Childhood, Geneva June 2009

 

Since last year, in view of commemorating the 20^th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 2009, Bice has been engaged in reviewing the status of childhood in light of the CRC: What are the achievements accomplished so far? What are the most systematic violations of children human rights still occurring? What are the new challenges to take up?

In the last 2007 quarter, Bice established four regional expert groups in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe & CIS, including representatives of Bice member organizations, our partners as well as experts and other field actors close to our organization. These four groups gathered about fifty persons. After some working seminars, exchanges and consultations, each regional expert group wrote a position paper on the status of childhood in its region. These studies were presented last 4 June in Paris during a meeting attended by more than 200 persons.

At present, Bice constitutes an international committee, which, based on the regional documents and the reactions that they will generate, will prepare an Appeal for Childhood. We aim at launching this appeal in Geneva in June 2009.

On the occasion of the 20^th anniversary of the Convention, it will offer the opportunity to internationally rally again around the CRC and its founding values for the dignity and the rights of the child.

We would like to associate the greatest possible number of organizations and concerned actors interested in child-related issues to the appeal drafting process. We would, therefore, welcome receiving your comments and remarks on the position paper pertaining to your region:

- Africa region

- latin America Region

-Asia

-Europe-CIS

All the Position Paper can also be found (in French and Spanish) on >> www.bice.org

Please, do not hesitate in disseminating these documents among the members of the networks you belong.

In advance, we thank you for your contribution, which will definitely enrich the reflection of the international committee when drafting the appeal.

We will very much appreciate if you could send your reply by using the enclosed form and return it to positionpaperbice  no later than 31 August 2008.