Statement made by child rights NGOs to the Plenary of Governments at the WSIS Prepcom-3 (September 2005)

Submitted by crinadmin on

Summary: The following statement was made to the Plenary of Governments at the WSIS Prepcom-3 by Karen Mangnall, from ECPAT International, on behalf of the Child Right's Caucus, the Arigatou Foundation, Childnet International, Child Helpline International, the Consortium for Street Children, CRIN, ECPACT International, EURONET, the Global Movement for Children, Plan International, Save the Children UK and UNICEF.

 

"Madam Chair, thank you for this opportunity to speak on behalf of the children's groups contributing to the PrepCom and the WSIS process.

As stakeholders, we wish to offer some concrete proposals for Chapter 12 of the Tunis Declaration to implement the commitment to children's rights, child participation, and child protection in articles 11 and 59 of the Geneva Declaration and article 25 of the Plan of Action.

Regarding child protection, we urge the sub-committee to adopt as new paragraph 6s - that policies and effective frameworks to protect children from abuse and exploitation through ICTs be incorporated into all national e-strategies. This new article 6s, taken from one of our contributions, is proposed in the 8 September report of the Friends of the Chair.

The children's groups also urge you to include in article 6, the concrete actions proposed in the joint children's contribution:

6c. the provision of educational programmes to increase access and safe use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) by children and young people.

6e. the provision of toll-free child helplines for children and young people in all regions.

6f. the use of ICTs to improve access to birth registration.

And, 6g. the use of ICTs to address the needs of children affected by disasters.

Regarding follow-up to the Geneva Declaration's commitment to child rights, we ask you to reaffirm in articles 5 and 6 that achieving universal human rights, including child rights, is a fundamental objective of ICT for Development, along with the Millennium Development Goals.

Madam Chair, the PrepCom must ensure that the commitments to children made at Geneva are followed up in the Tunis Declaration. We are concerned that so far most of our contributions on implementation have not been put before you for consideration. We are confident this will change. Meanwhile, the children's groups will continue to offer our support to your work so the Tunis Declaration implements the rights, participation and protection of all children in the Information Society.

Thank you."

For the joint children's NGO submission, see http://www.crin.org/docs/resources/publications/CHI_joint_submission.pdf

To read the ECPAT submission, visit:
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=6228

To read Child Helpline International's submission, visit: http://www.crin.org/docs/resources/publications/CHI_joint_submission.pdf

To know more about the World Summit on the Information Society, visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=6225&flag=event

 

Issues: 
Children and the media

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