“If we’re not included in your work agendas, conferences like this will remain little more than talking shops”.Santo Domingo, 16 March 2011.- “If we’re not included in your work agendas, conferences like this will remain little more than talking shops. Those of us who see the problem close up (commercial sexual exploitation of children and adolescents) and not from an office, are demanding that you include us so we can be part of the solution”. This is how the youth leaders representing the groups working first hand on guiding minors expressed their concerns about the situation in the Dominican Republic. Bienvenido Jiménez, Reyna Guerrero and Emmanuel Rosado made their demands to representatives of a range of private and public institutions from the Dominican Republic and other Central American countries who were taking part in the first day of the Sub-Regional Congress on the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents, which continued till Friday 18th March in Santo Domingo. “Action” was the statement that dominated the speeches and lectures by the young people and other presenters during the opening event of the Congress. “They ask us to help with analysing themes but they don’t take on our recommendations. Adolescents don’t discuss their problems with adults because they are afraid of them, because they tend to be the ones who abuse them”, declared Bienvenido, Reyna and Emmanuel, in the hope of obtaining some action for the benefit of children and adolescents who live in this situation, from the participants in the event, who were representing many of the institutions involved in protecting under-age children. The young leaders took part in the last part of the work programme on the first day of the Congress. They were representing the Youth Municipality Advisors Network, an organisation called A Roof for My Country and the Catholic Youth Wave movement, which bring together youth leaders whose activities include campaigning for social development and respect for rights. At the opening ceremony, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) representative, María Jesús Conde Zabala, assessed progress made to date and the challenges ahead for the Dominican Republic in the fight against commercial sexual exploitation, and informed the participants about the equity approach that UNICEF has incorporated in its work towards the elimination of barriers that prevent children and adolescents from accessing basic services and breaking the cycle of poverty, discrimination and violence. “It’s about fulfilling the human rights of children who are excluded in order to ensure universality and speed up progress towards the achievement of the Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals by 2015”, stressed Conde Zabala. In his keynote speech on “Development, Equity and Children” Economist and Human Development expert Miguel Ceara Hatton said that this sort of exploitation is linked, along with other aspects, to the poverty and inequality of nations, and that this is affected by the effort that is made, or otherwise, towards the development of a society. “Development means having decent jobs, an electricity supply, access to drinking water, orderly traffic and respect for the rules, quality public schools where the timetable is fulfilled, access to a functioning, quality health service, an impartial justice system, to feel protected by the police, to have a political system that works as a genuine system of representation for citizens, that is accountable and respects the law; simple things, but these are all difficult to achieve in this country”, said Ceara Hatton while highlighting the importance of society’s role in the eradication of commercial sexual exploitation and other problems affecting children and adolescents in the Dominican Republic and other countries in the world. The opening ceremony also included an address by Max Puig, Labour Minister and president of the Inter-Institutional Commission against Abuse and Commercial Sexual Exploitation, Ms. Noortje Denkers, a sub-regional official from the International Programme for the Eradication of Child Labour (IPEC) of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Enmanuela Benini from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The event was organised by the Dominican Republic Inter-Institutional Commission against Abuse and Commercial Sexual Exploitation, with support from UNICEF in Santo Domingo and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs International Cooperation Department. By María Eugenia del Pozo
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