(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Professor Nigel Harris, Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies (UWI) will be the Keynote Speaker at the Twelfth Special Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD), which has its focus for the second time on Children.
The three-day COHSOD, which has as its theme: Building a Region Fit for Children, opens on Monday, 17 March at 9:00am at the Guyana International Convention Centre, Guyana, with technical sessions in which a range of issues related to children and the rights and protection of children will be addressed.
Professor Harris will be addressing the Opening Ceremony on Monday at 5:00pm and will be exploring the need to address specific environments, policies and legislation in creating a region that is fit for children. Remarks will be made by H.E. Edwin Carrington, Secretary General of the Caribbean Community; Hon Peter Martinez, Minister of Human Development and Social Transformation, Belize and Chair of COHSOD; Hon. Clement Rohee, Minister of Home Affairs, Guyana and Mr. Nils Katsberg, Regional Director, UNICEF (Latin America and the Caribbean).
The COHSOD brings together a wide range of regional and international stakeholders including Ministers of Government, civil servants, child advocates and private sector interests who will focus on progress towards the attainment of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which has its genesis in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGASS) Special Session on Children in 2002. Member States of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) joined with other nations at UNGASS 2002 in identifying a number of implementable programmes under the theme: A World Fit for Children, to treat with children in emergencies, child legislation, early childhood education, healthy life styles, HIV/AIDS, child survival and development and violence against children.
It is anticipated that the COHSOD will review the progress of Member States of the Caribbean Community in the implementation of the 2002 Regional Framework of Action for Children. This framework was conceptualized based on the commitments contained in the Kingston Consensus (2000), The Declaration of World Fit for Children (WFC, 2002) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs, 2000), and requires Member States to report on progress made in the implementation of children’s rights.
Commenting on the region’s progress, Dr Edward Greene, Assistant Secretary General, Human and Social Development of the CARICOM Secretariat said, while there were some areas, such as child legislation, in which progress had been less than satisfactory, the region had made significant strides in the areas of child nutrition; reduction of child mortality and expanding access to early childhood care and development. He added that several Member States also had best practices in utilising their resources in improving the welfare of children.
