Arab regional civil society forum on childhood opens in rabat
Regional, Culture, 2/16/2001

The Arab Regional Civil Society Forum on Childhood opened proceedings in Rabat Thursday under the chairmanship of Prince Moulay Rachid who was accompanied by Princess Lalla Meriem, chairwoman of the Moroccan national observatory of child right.

The forum to wind up on February 19 is held part of the preparations to the World Child Summit, slated for September 19-21, 2001 at the United Nations in New York City.

The opening session heard a message by King Mohammed VI who called for more efforts at international, Arab and national levels to shield childhood and protect children against all the dangers looming on them and urged childhood activists in the Arab world to make rational and realistic recommendations likely to help devise national and Arab strategies to promote the Arab childhood.

The sovereign also highlighted the role of the civil society as "an efficient mobilizing and suggestive power in the fields of child care," and urged the participants in the Forum to comprehensively and thoroughly assess the issues to be debated so as to submit to Arab governments objective concepts and rational and realistic recommendations likely to help devise national and Arab strategies to promote the Arab childhood and to soundly distribute roles and responsibilities between the governmental bodies and the civil society.

Prince Talal Ibn Abdelaziz, president of the Arab Gulf program for support to the United Nations development agencies, called, in an address before the opening session, civil society activists and national and regional organizations to put children and women issues on top of priorities, in all social and development projects.

He urged the Forum to make concrete practical, detailed, and clear recommendations to Arab governments regarding cooperation and coordination between these governments and the concerned civil society.

He insisted that childhood problems are part and parcel of the problems of a society as a whole, wherefrom the need to have a global vision on all childhood-related issues.

Prince Talal who is also president of the Arab childhood and development council and president of the Arab network of national organizations, also dwelt on the relationship between the government and the civil society in each Arab country, deploring the fact that sometimes differences and disputes prevail over cooperation and coordination, and voicing hope that "it will not take Arab countries a long time to realize that the civil society is not at loggerheads with governments," and that no human, economic, social nor cultural development is possible without the civil society. "The blending of cooperation and coordination is the best fuel for the locomotive that should trawl the social action concerned with humankind in general and childhood in particular and that we wish to build throughout the Arab World," prince Talal said.

Prince Talal expressed hope that the project he initiated to set up banks for the poor in Arab countries would be implemented, explaining that the project is closely related to childhood issues, as struggle against poverty positively impacts on the children who were brought up in poverty. He called all Arab countries to cooperate and back this project, which was already carried out in Yemen and Jordan.

Taking the floor, Arab League secretary general, Esmat Abdelmeguid, deplored the fact that despite the efforts being made, the rights of Arab Children, who represent 50 per cent of the Arab population, are still violated.

The Arab League chief who denounced the aggressions perpetrated by the Israeli army against unarmed Palestinian children announced that the Arab League will celebrate October 1st of every year as the Arab Child Day in the memory of the Al-Aqsa intifada martyr, the child Mohamed Doura.

UNICEF regional director for north Africa and the Middle East, Ibrahima Fall, hailed the tremendous work made by the civil society and its backing to governmental actions, a fact, which enabled, he said, to score significant progress in various childhood-related fields, and mainly in the fields of health and education.

The Arab world region, he said, recorded over the past fifteen years the best scores in matters of reducing death rates among children below five and is about to eradicate poliomyelitis. He also surveyed the efforts made by Morocco to uphold child right, mentioning in this regard the setting up of the child parliament, the ratification of the convention on human rights, and the promotion of health and education services.

Child mortality rate which exceeded 200 per one thousand in 1960 was curbed to about 50 per one thousand in 1999, and more than 85 per cent of Moroccan children are now attending school, he said.

The opening session was attended by other figures, including spouses of some heads of state (Palestine, Senegal, Lebanon), chiefs of international and regional organizations, members of the Moroccan cabinet, the diplomatic corps accredited to Rabat, and delegates of Moroccan and foreign ngos.

The five-day encounter is examining a set of issues related to childhood and to the situation of childhood in the Arab world, the role of the civil society in promoting child rights, children in precarious situation, poverty and impact of economic policies on children, and civil society: partnership and coordination.

The forum also features workshops on the setting up of Arab banks for the poor, similar to the two banks already instituted in Yemen and Jordan, and an exhibition of documents and publications on childhood.

The forum is part of preparations for the special session of the General Assembly on children slated for September 19-21, 2001 at the United Nations in New York City.

Previous Stories:
  Arab regional civil society forum on childhood convenes in Rabat   (2/15/2001)
  Morocco hosts Arab childhood forum   (1/31/2001)
  Rabat Arab conference calls for study on forms of children ill-treatments   (1/18/2001)

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