Summary: The seminar will be a mixture of
presentations by professionals in the
fields of child rights and of health,
and workshops: 1) Prevention
among teenagers : AIDS and media
and 2) How to create Income
Generating Activities, 3) Using the
WEB as information source on AIDS
and the rights of the child 4) Access
to medication, 5) Resilience
Programme
Course Director : Mr Michel Manciaux
Professor of public health
University Henri Poincaré, Nancy (France)
Dates : Tuesday, October 14th to
Saturday October 18th 2003
Location : Institut Universitaire Kurt Bösch (IUKB)
Case postale 4176, Ch-1950 SION 4
Tél. ++41-27-205.73.00 - Fax ++41-27-205.73.02
e-mail : ide@iukb.ch
web : www.childsrights.org
Languages : French and English with simultaneous translation
throughout the plenary sessions.
With the sponsorship of the
Committee on the Rights of the Child (solicited)
International Association of Magistrates for Youth and Family
With the support of the
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (Swiss
Confederation)
Loterie Romande
AIDS & KIND
ARGUMENT
The title of the 9th IDE Seminar, organised jointly with the
Association François-Xavier Bagnoud, is explicit: HIV/AIDS is a
growing concern as far as health and the future of numerous
regions on the planet are concerned. It is also a concern for
those who defend children’s rights as a whole, since this
epidemic questions the position of the child facing illness, but also
the child’s place in society.
HIV/AIDS should not anymore be a taboo : numerous information
and training campaigns have tried to demonstrate the existence
of the illness, to figure out its causes, to point out risky
behaviour, to develop prevention tools, to give hope with
available treatment. However, in many places, speaking of
HIV/AIDS is still impossible, for various reasons, most often of a
cultural kind. If HIV/AIDS remains a taboo, it has accordingly no
real existence … and every attempt at preventing or treating it is
vain.
There is no possible dealing with HIV/AIDS and the rights of the
child without becoming alarmed about one of its dramatic
consequences : the AIDS Orphans and vulnerable children.
Abandoned children, sometimes contaminated at birth,
sometimes healthy, having nobody to take care of them since
their family has been annihilated by the epidemic. Stigmatised,
rejected, exploited and discriminated against, they have nothing
and turn into social misfits, living aside any safety net, deprived
of the necessary love of a family. These cohorts of orphans also
represent a major problem where social stability is concerned.
Very often they will become the child-soldier and the delinquent
of tomorrow, swelling the ranks of those who live on the streets,
consigned to the scrap heap of prostitution, drugs and despair.
According to Dr Peter Piot (UNAIDS report 2002), it is clear that
we are only at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in historic
terms, the most devastating epidemics in human history. In spite
of forecasts according to which the infection rates should soon
level off – this has not happened.
The epidemic is spreading further – not only in Africa, but in
China, in Russia, in India that threaten to outdistance all other
world’s regions in HIV/AIDS statistics – dragging along millions of
victims.
What about children’s rights in this context ? It is certain that
children – along with women – are the plague’s first victims, and
those who most need to be helped, protected, cared. And
informed, warned, on what gestures will save them from
becoming, in turn, actors in the tragedy.
And intervention strategies ? Are they not known ? Not taught?
Has not sufficient work been carried out with actors in the field ?
The answer is yes, a lot has been done. The concrete action run
by AFXB for 14 years is an outstanding example and illustrates
undoubtedly the good results that can be obtained when one
strives to reintegrate these children in their societies, giving
support to the communities that welcome them. But the fact
remains that what is obvious is a deficiency in terms of training
and information. All possible tracks have not been investigated,
all possible ways have not been open. Far from it : there is so
much left to do.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
Members of active NGOs working in the area of children’s rights,
people who work in the area of the protection and education of
children, doctors, lawyers, teachers, psychologists, sociologists,
judges, social workers, and all other interested individuals
(political, media, researchers, students finishing there degrees)
are welcomed.
PROGRAMME
Tuesday, October 14th , 2003
5:00 p.m. Registration and collection of documents at the IUKB
7:00 p.m. Departure to the Grenette (in the city)
7:30 p.m. Opening Ceremony and glazing of the
exhibition "Rights of the Child and AIDS"
8:30 p.m. Cocktail to welcome participants
Wednesday, October 15th, 2003
Chairperson of the session : Mrs Paola RIVA GAPANY
Part I: Report
09:30 a.m. Presentation of the programme and the Mrs
Paola Riva Gapany, Jurist LLM, Association François-Xavier
Bagnoud Director's assistant, IDE, Sion (AFXB) Mrs Chrisine
Eggs, Director of Communications and Rights of the Child Dept.,
AFXB, Sion
10:00 a.m. General panorama ONUSIDA, Genève
(solicited)
10:45 a.m. Break
11:15 a.m. Treatment of HIV/AIDS as a tool for Dr.
Alejandro Haag-Lederer, Internal prevention of OVCs and
advocacy of Medicine and Infectious Diseases physician, children
rights AFXB USA, Burlington
11:45 a.m. Report of a Moroccan doctor Mr Abdelilah El
Madani, Teaching physician, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy,
Rabat (Morocco)
12:45 p.m. Lunch
02:00 p.m. Workshops
03:00 p.m. Opening Speeches
Dr Bernard Comby, President, International Institute for the
Rights of the Child, Sion
Mrs Micheline Calmy-Rey, Chief of the Federal Department of
Foreign Affairs, Bern
04:00 p.m. Workshops
06:00 p.m. End of the day
08:00 p.m. "Valaisan" Evening
Thursday, October 16th, 2003
Chairperson of the session : Mrs Christine Eggs
Part II: Specific problems of OVC
09:00 a.m. Rights of the child to the health, Mrs Nevena Vuckovic-
Sahovic, Member of the the Generic drugs issue Committee of the
Rights of the Child, UNHCHR, Geneva
09:45 a.m. Demography and AIDS Mr Robert deGraft
Agyarko, WHO, Geneva
10:30 a.m. Break
11:00 a.m. Taboos, stigmatization and Mrs Noreen
Kaleba, discrimination UNAIDS Office, Geneva
11:45 a.m. Religion, taboo and close support Mrs
Anne Courvoisier, Psychoanalyst, of the children in mourning
thanatologist, SOS-Deuil, Geneva
12:30 a.m. Lunch
14:00 a.m. Visit to the typical village of Hérémence or
city tour of Sion
17:30 a.m. End of the day
Friday, October 17th, 2003
Chairperson of the session: Mr Christophe Bagnoud
Part III: The solutions ?
09:00 a.m. Romania : action and justice Mrs Lucia-
Maria Stirbu, Resource person VIH/SIDA, Terre des Hommes
(Romania)
09:45 a.m. Micro-credits and IGA Mr Remigious
Bekunda, FXB Uganda
10:30 a.m. Break
11:00 a.m. UNGASS follow up of New York Mr Anil Purohit,
AFXB USA, Burlington
11:30 a.m. Orphans and Vulnerable Children Mr
Mark Conolly, UNICEF, Child Protection (OVC) Programme
Division, New York (USA)
12:30 p.m. Lunch
02:00 p.m. Workshops
05:30 p.m. NGO Poster session
to 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, October 18th, 2003
Chairperson of the session: Mr Jean Zermatten
09:00 a.m. Report of the workshops Reporters
10:00 a.m. Conclusion Mr Michel Manciaux
Professor of public health University Henri Poincaré, Nancy
(France)
10:30 a.m. Break
11:00 a.m. Closing comments Mrs Albina du
Boisrouvray, President Founder of the Association François-Xavier
Bagnoud, Sion
11:30 a.m. End of the seminar and announcement of the
2004 seminar
12:00 noon Lunch
Workshops
Wednesday, October 15th, 2003 – 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
and
Friday, October 17th, 2003 – 2:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Workshop 1 : Prevention among teenagers : AIDS and media
- Mr Patrick Vallélian, Journalist at "La Liberté", Swiss French
speaking, published in Fribourg
- Mrs Catherine Donnet, Antenne SIDA Valais, Sion
- Mrs Tanya Norton, WHO, Health and Human Rights Strategy
Unit, Geneva
Workshop 2 : How to create Income Generating Activities ?
- Mr Remigious Bekunda, AFXB Uganda
Workshop 3 : Using the WEB as information source on AIDS and
the rights of the child
- Mr Christophe Bagnoud, Association François-Xavier Bagnoud,
Sion
- Mrs Geneviève Lévine, International Institute of the Rights of
the Child, Sion
Workshop 4 : Access to medication
- Mr Alejandro Haag-Lederer, internal medicine and infectious
diseases physician, AFXB USA, Burlington
- Ms Lucia-Maria Stirbu, Resource person, Terre des Hommes
(Roumania)
Atelier 5 : Resilience
- Mr Abdelilah El Madani, Teaching physician, Faculty of medicine
and Pharmacy, Rabat (Marocco)
- Mrs Renate Winter, Justice at the Special Court of Sierra LeoneOwner: International Institute for the Rights of the Child (IDE) in collaboration with l’Association François-Xavier Bagnoud (AFXB) Association: Institut Universitaire Kurt Bösch (IUKB), Case postale 4176, Ch-1950 SION 4, Tél. +41-27-205.73.00; Fax +41-27-205.73.02, Email: ide@iukb.ch