Damascus hosts Arab League seminar on Arab children
Regional, Culture, 4/24/2002

Deliberations of the 9th ordinary session of Arab League ( AL) Arab Children technical and consultation committee were opened in Damascus on April 22 through 24th. It was attended by senior officials concerned representing Arab children organizations.

In a statement to Arabic News (ArabicNews.com) UNICEF's Regional Communication Advisor for Middle East and North Africa Anis Sameh said the meeting comes at an important time, few weeks before the UN special session on children. We hope it will help prepare Arab delegates for participation in this historic meeting and paves the way for implementing the new vision for children which will be agreed at the special UN session. Many regions in the world like Africa and South Asia have held preparatory meetings to identify the special characteristics and concerns they have.

He added that the Arab league AL has been engaged in this process since 1992 and this is the 9th session of the Advisory technical committee on Children.

He added that looking back over the past decades the Arab region has managed to achieve a large drop in the death of children and maternal mortality has also dropped significantly, but there are also huge challenges. Seven conflicts have taken place in the region with a devastating impact on women and children, over 70 million Arab citizens are illiterate; two thirds of them are women and girls. He continued that there are half a million of children dying every year unnecessarily; 11 million children are not enrolled in school and 10 million children are working. He added that there are new challenges that include providing early child care and development opportunities to children, improving the quality of education and providing opportunities for the participation of young people in deciding on issues that are concerned.

These are huge challenges and it will not be enough to address them in the usual manner- issuing statements, making declarations, hoping things will get better- What is needed is a new vision that places children as a strategic priority and allocates substantial resources to this population group and monitors progress for children meticulously.

UNICEF's representative in Damascus Mohamed Bindress Alami said in a similar statement to Arabic News that it is very important for UNICEF to support all regional debates relating to participation concerning the special UN session because problems are different from one region to another and at the present time our region is very concerned by the catastrophic humanitarian conditions in the occupied Palestinian territories. The situation of children in our region is quite different from one country to another country and the results of the last decade are different from one country to another country, but the most important here is to make a good evaluation of the situation to identify the progress and the challenges for the next decade.

The meeting of the 9th ordinary session of the technical consultation committee for Arab children of the Arab league AL general secretariat, Mr. Alami said is very important because " we need to have a comprehensive picture on the children in the Middle East and North Africa regions," noting that these will help to identify what should be the goals for the next decades within the international general Global Movement for Children ( GMC) advocating for a world fits for children. He added:" Is very important also to discuss here a unified Arab strategy how to put these children among the Arab priorities and how to organize Arab commitment on children issues ."

He said that certainly most of the Arab states have made a good progress during the last decade, but challenges are still and we need to agree how to address problems, difficulties to allow the children to enjoy their rights.

He explained:" I would like to flag here the need for further work in the areas of protection and participation, because those aspects are very much related to the Arab culture, policy, social organization, behaviors and resistance to accept changes." Alami continued that most of the Arab states in the region did progress in the areas of survival and development, but the quality of the achievements is not always sustainable. He said there is a need to improve the quality of the essential basic services in particular health and education. There is a need to improve the management system to sustain the achievements and there is a need to have a participatory approach involving civil society beneficiaries and children themselves. He said that special attention should be given to youth and adolescent in genera. For them, he hinted, to participate in all things related to their life and future.

He added as saying that for this general overview " I would like to focus on the situation in Syria, considering that Syria is among the Arab countries which ratified the Child Right Convention ( CRC) in 1993 and also prepared a national plan of action to implement the convention."

He said that the recent evaluation of the decade achievements show that Syria did a very positive progress in the areas of health, education and child protection, but now we have challenged to sustain more progress in the area of protection and participation, and to do so, we need to establish a clear strategy where all actors could be involved including children and civil society, to support governments efforts in this regard.

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