Submitted by crinadmin on
Summary: Declaration of the child delegates at the MENA
Regional consultation for the UN Study on
Violence against children, presented at the
closing ceremony on 29 June 2005.
We, 28 children of the Arab nations, representing 9 countries, we met for 3
days to unify our approach under one slogan, to stop violence against
children. We all conducted some national work in our country before
coming here. We prepared for our participation, divided into 4 groups, run
by a facilitator and submitted our issues on flipcharts and discussed,
voted, and reached consensus, if there were issues that were not agreed,
we worked as one group to come up with conclusions.
“We the children, declare violence, whether physical violence,
psychological violence, or neglect, a serious problem in this region;
We regret that most laws to protect us are not implemented;
We regret that all countries in this region have ratified the Convention on
the Rights of the Child, however, still many children suffer from abuse, and
from the effects of occupation and war, such as Iraq, Sudan and Palestine;
Violence affects the child emotionally, physically, psychologically, in schools,
in institutions, and childcare institutions;
Taking into account that several countries take actions againt children, the
fitst step is to recognise that there is violence against children and
recognise our participation, we want to be a part of the solution.
A plan of action suggested by us is:
1. enact legislation and strategies to protect children at home, on
the streets, in schools and in institutions
2. enact national and international laws to prevent violence and
violations of these
3. punish those who use violence against children
4. monitoring system on media concerning issues
5. free education system, allocate budget for education
6. establish a special court for violence against children, provide full
protection for children
7. abusers of children in the family should be given psychological
treatment and treat victims without separating children from their family
8. establish a committee for handling children subjected to family
violence, help perpetrators to undersand their mistakes, and help children
in court
Awareness:
1. produce papers, lectures, and leaflets to raise awareness
2. fight discrimination and use media to help
3. produce art work to help children and highlight issues
4. organise positive role of media in discipline problems
5. treat conflict between bad and good in drama
6. monitor broadcast materials
7. ensure the role of media in promoting protection for children
8. encourage production of plays to disseminate peace
In institutions:
1. establish safe houses for children who are victims of abuse
2. develop programmes for orphans
3. establish centers children can complain to if subjected to
violence where they can receive psychological, physical and emotional
support
4. train social workers to assist children
Schools:
1. appoint representatives to receive complaints from children who
are subjected to violence in schools and institutions
2. establish associations at local levels to follow up
3. monitor implementation of strategies agreed by states
4. monitor schools and institutions to ensure they abide by
regulations
5. submit reports from children and social workers to officials