Under-18 zone
CHILDREN'S FORUM: POSTPONED
The Children's Forum, originally scheduled to take
place in New York, 16-18 September 2001 as a Side
Event of the Special Session on Children, has been
postponed to a later date. The new date will be announced
here when available.
UNICEF, in collaboration with UN Agencies, NGO's and children's
groups, will facilitate a three day Children's Forum for members
of government and accredited NGO delegations UNDER THE AGE OF
18, who will be attending the Special Session of the General Assembly
on Children.
Lessons Learned on Children's Participation in Conferences:
-
Children need to have a clear role when taking
part in a conference;
-
Children want to be treated as partners when
taking part in a conference where they have been invited by
adults;
-
Children want to be taken seriously by adults;
- Children want to take part in mainstream events, and not just
in parallel activities (this is why the children's forum will
take part prior to the Special Session on Children)
-
Children need to be able to meet in their own
space, time and ways appropriate to their age and adults should
accept this.
Purpose of Children's Forum:
- Give an opportunity to participants to further explore the issues
of the Outcome Document of the Special Session, 'A World Fit for
Children' [word part
1 & part
2 | pdf part
1 &
part 2];
- Enable participants to discuss ways in which they, as children
and young people, can be actively involved in the implementation
and monitoring of the goals as outlined in the Outcome Document;
- Enable participants to identify constructive ways on how they
can influence their governments, UN agencies, NGO's and other
decision-makers on programmes designed to benefit children.
Expected Outcome:
The outcome of the Children's Forum will be presented to the plenary
of the Special Session. One possible outcome is an action kit based
on the ten points of the Rallying Call of the Global
Movement for Children and the 'Say yes for
Children' campaign.
Since the three days of the Children's Forum will not allow enough
time to prepare and complete an action kit, your ideas will be received
through the internet. UNICEF's 'Voices of Youth' web site will have
ten discussion groups based on the ten points. You will find these
discussion groups on: www.unicef.org/voy.
For those who do not have access to the internet, please write your
ideas and fax them to UNICEF NYHQ: Fax number: + (1) 212-824 6470,
attention of Jeannette Wijnants or Josephine Rajasegera.
When/Where:
To be announced.
Selection of Participants:
Selection of participants of the Children's Forum is the responsibility
of the delegations.
Please refer to the proposed guidelines
on participation and selection of delegates.
Accompanying Adults:
Please refer to the proposed guidelines
on the role and responsibility of accompanying adults.
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