July 3, 2001

Mrs. Mubarak opens Arab conference on children

Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak opened on Monday at the Arab League the Arab Conference on Children's Human Rights.

    The three-day conference aims at adopting a unified Arab stance towards children issues on under-discussion.

    The conference, which comes in implementation of an Amman summit resolution, will discuss child Labour, discrimination and violence' among children, means to provide good education and information technology as well.

    Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa voic hope that the problems which Arab children have suffered would be fully alleviated.

    "Holding such a conference at the Arab League proves that the league is not only a political organization but also a regional one," Moussa said.

    Children are the future and taking care of them is a perfect investment in the future, he added.

    "Now that ten years have passed after the convocation of the first world summit for children, I wonder whether we have materialized our hoped-for aspirations in this field " expounded Moussa.

    The answer is no. The African child is still suffering," Moussa said.

    He noted that adopting a unified Arab stance would enhance the mechanisms of joint Arab action in the social field.

    Addressing the inaugural session, Mrs. Mubarak voiced pleasure over convening the conference, noting that there are great challenges facing Arab children.

    She highlighted the need for a viable and realistic work plan for preserving rights of Arab children and youth.

    "Major achievements had been accomplished during the past decade in the educational, cultural and health domains as several Arab counties have established their own childhood institution," said Mrs. Mubarak

    "These achievements had coincided with the Arab women's summit, held in November, 2000 giving more hope for development of Arab lifestyle," she added.

    "There are two basic missions ahead, namely, to forge an Arab stance during the coming UN special session on children, due in September, as well as promoting joint Arab action in order to give children due care, said the first lady, adding that this requires a wide-scale Arab activity.

    She underlined the need to use all Arab capabilities to eliminate educational, health and cultural shortcomings.

    Mrs. Mubarak also stressed the importance of preserving morals and investing in knowledge so as to qualify Arab children to be capable of dealing with today's world.

    "Despite world child accomplishments, there are still threats of economic crises, debts, plagues, illiteracy and armed conflicts in many developing countries," said Mrs. Mubarak.

    She called for taking effective measures in order to provide protection for Palestinian children in the occupied territories and more efforts to help Arab children in Iraq, Libya and Sudan.

    In her address, Queen Rania of Jordan stressed the need for an Arab vision taking into account all threats facing childhood such as mounting violence, armed conflicts, occupation, economic siege, unemployment and poverty.

    She called on civil society organizations to tackle childhood-related issues.

    "Palestinian children face an Israeli military occupation. Iraqi children suffer a long-running and unjust siege and other Arab children suffer poverty," said Queen Rania.

    Lawmaker Bahia Hariri, wife of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, stressed the importance of taking a unified Arab stance over the international child document preserving the peculiar nature of Arab children.

    She highlighted the importance of coordination between the Arab League, Arab governments and civil society organizations for a unified Arab vision as well as the wording of documents on Arab childhood, especially the Palestinians.

    "Children in Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq suffer badly due to armed conflicts which destroyed their countries," she added.

    Yafa, a Palestinian kid, said that 150 children were killed and more than 5,000 wounded in AL Aqsa Intifada.

    "Palestinian children need protection rather than draft resolutions," said Yafa.

    "Palestinian kids suffer Israeli violations and many school seats are vacant because children are either dead, wounded or arrested by the Israeli occupiers," she added.

    She hoped that one day tenor and panic would be over and Palestinian children could live in peace.

    It is noteworthy that Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak, was elected on Monday as the chairperson of the Arab conference on children and human rights.

    Queen Rania, wife of King Abdullah II of Jordan, was elected as first deputy of the chairperson of the conference.

    Tunisia was elected as second deputy and Yemen as a general rapporteur.

    The participants agreed to form a technical committee and a wording committee grouping Arab League experts and member states.