To ensure a Caribbean fit for children, a regional response to the UN Special Session on Children is being crafted at a One Day Meeting of CARICOM Ministers with Responsibility for Children.
The main purpose of the Meeting is to provide an opportunity for the Region to examine the “regional framework for the implementation of children’s rights and human development in the Caribbean”.
A UNICEF-supported document outlining the overall context for children in the Region serves as the discussion paper for the one-day Meeting, the consensus of which will be presented to the COHSOD VII. This is to ensure that the work-programme of the Directorate for Human and Social Development at the CARICOM Secretariat, is even more sensitive to the priorities of the Region’s children.
A total of eight Ministers representing Member States of CARICOM attended the Opening Session which opened in Georgetown, Guyana Tuesday 22 October.
Hon Bibi Shadick, Guyana’s Minister within the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security, in her welcome, called for her colleague ministers to pay special attention to the issue of the marginalisation of boys in the classroom, an issue, which is becoming increasingly prevalent in the Region.
Recognising the political will of Caribbean Governments to comply with the commitments made since the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1993, Mr Alfredo R. Missair, Deputy Regional Director, UNICEF cited the social policy initiatives in the Region that addressed the reduction of infant mortality, improvements in health and nutritional status of children and the provision of near universal primary education, expansion of secondary schooling.
He commended the new efforts in integrated early childhood development stating that “it is important that within our understanding of democratic education and citizenship development we open clear and positive channels for child and adolescent participation in the decisions that would impact their future”. Only then will we “creatively promote societies where solidarity between people and generations become the foundation of sustainable development and the architecture for a tangible realisation of the human potential.”
Dr Edward Greene, Assistant Secretary General for Human and Social Development at the CARICOM Secretariat in his Opening Remarks emphasized that the Special Meeting was in keeping with the integrated theme of COHSOD, “Investing in Human Resources with Equity.”“The issues that are in focus of this special session also directly concern COHSOD and finds it an apt niche in its inter-sectoral agenda. Indeed, issues such as child survival, early childhood education and development and child protection already connect with some of the major activities of COHSOD”, Dr Greene said.
This Meeting is a follow-up to the UN Special Session, held in New York in May 2002. It charts the course for the continued implementation of fundamental agreements and standards that are embodied in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Kingston Consensus, the UN Millennium Development Goals and the World Fit for Children.
