Princess chairs closing session of national children rights congress

Princess Lalla Meryem, eldest daughter of King Hassan II of Morocco, chaired here on Wednesday the closing session of the national children rights congress.

The princess awarded to the Moroccan branch of the U.N. Children Fund (UNICEF) the 1997 Hassan II prize for children protection.

An ad-hoc commission recommended that the government should look into amendment proposals to adapt national laws to international conventions on the protection of children rights.It also recommended the creation of a documentation center to set up a data bank on children that will serve as a precious reference for measures to be taken.

Participants hailed Morocco's ratification of the international convention setting the minimum child labor age.

Regarding education, an urgent appeal was launched to have local councils and non-governmental organizations contribute to efforts to increase school access of needy children.

According to figures released at the congress, around 2 million Moroccan children aged between 6 and 16 years are not going to school while the capacity of non-formal education, a program set forth by the education ministry, barely stands at 35,000 children.

Morocco marked on Tuesday the national child day that saw the convening, for the first time, of a children parliament, a forum where 357 selected children representing all Morocco's social categories and education systems, were given the opportunity to ask the government members questions on measures to improve the situation of children.