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Summary: General information and feedback on
Children’s Participation in the Middle East and
North Africa Consultation for the UN Study,
taking place in Cairo from 27-29 June 2005.Twenty-eight children took part in a three day pre-session to the regional
consultation to prepare for their participation. Children came from nine
countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, Tunisia and
Yemen. There was at least one boy and one girl from each country, with a
diverse background, both socially and economically.
Prior to the pre session, there were also two online chats organised with
the children and other children who were not able to attend, such as
children from Iraq and Palestine. All child participants had previously been
involved in some sort of NGO activity in their home countries, or some were
members of the children’s parliaments. In preparation for the consultation,
some children visited projects in their countries to ensure they understood
the issues and could represent children from their countries.
During the three days, children were divided into four groups, based on
the four themes of the consultation, namely: violence in the home and the
family, violence in schools, violence in institutional settings and violence in
the community. In each group, children worked to establish what forms of
violence children face, then they had to work on recommendations, and
finally they had to establish what their roles would be in ending violence
against children.
Each group then elected two children to present at the consultation.
Finally, all children got together to agree on a final statement, based on
the recommendations of each group.
During the initial days of the consultations, children were not very happy
because they felt that they were not being treated equally to adults. In
some working groups, adults were given five minutes to speak and
children, only half a minute. Furthermore, they were disappointed that
after they presented their recommendations to the delegates, they did not
get any reactions and no time was set aside for questions.
Some children also thought that everyone was talking in very general
terms, not mentioning the real issues, they thought that they were more
honest than adults. Finally children felt on a few occasions that the media
was harassing them. Some enjoyed the attention, but others said they felt
like objects and were intimidated.