- 180 girls, boys and adolescents met in Rio de Janeiro to talk about their practices of leading participation and how to influence to change their reality.
- Girls and boys from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay participated, representatives of the REDLAMYC National Coalitions of the southern cone.
- The theme of the meeting was "Child and Youth Protagonism on the Net: Strengthening the Policy on the Rights of Children and Adolescents in South America".
The Latin American and Caribbean Network for the Defense of Children and Adolescents @REDLAMYC, held from November 15 to 18, 2018, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil the Encounter of girls, boys and adolescents from the South Sub region. More than 180 representatives from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay participated in the event.
The meeting, which aimed to strengthen advocacy actions at the subregional level and expand the participation of children and adolescents, was organized by the National Forum for the Defense of Children and Adolescents - (National DCA Forum); the National Articulation of the Centers for the Defense of Children and Adolescents (ANCED) and the National Human Rights Movement (MNDH) members of this regional network, in coordination with the Technical Team of the Project Weaving Childhood Networks.
The Child and Youth Protagonism in the Network: Strengthening the Policy on the Rights of Children and Adolescents in South America ”is the slogan created by the participants who demonstrated the desire to strengthen networking and guarantee the voices of children and adolescents. adolescence in public policies and in organized civil society.
Márcia Carvalho, Coordinator of the DCA National Forum pointed out that “The meeting brought experiences so that we can find solutions to the problems of violence and the lack of public investment in children and adolescents in the Southern Subregion. The five countries represented here have the highest rates of adolescent pregnancy, child labor, sexual exploitation and murders of children and adolescents in the entire American continent ”.
For Lurdinha Nunes, Coordinator of the MNDH, It was important to strengthen the protagonism of the youth and to understand the process of participation and the alliances that can be formed, the struggle we must have for the defense of citizenship, Human Rights, exchange of experience, exchange of experiences . All this made a collective construction and made possible the strengthening of adolescents.
In the context of the recent elections in Brazil, Nunes highlighted that "Brazil is undergoing a very great transformation, every hour, we are being bombarded, with increasingly dire news, for example, we have just received the information that the Ministry of Human Rights will be extinct". The extinction of this institution would mean a serious setback to the guarantee of human rights in this country.
The Collegiate Coordination of the ANCED DCI Section in Brazil evaluated the event as positive. For the Orlando Almeida Coordinator “It is a fuel in the resistance struggle and the most important thing is to listen to the voices of adolescents, he brought to light the discussions at the southern region on the policies to guarantee rights, under the gaze and voice of adolescents ”.
Romero Silva, coordinator of ANCED complemented stating that “Guaranteeing the participation of adolescents, listening to them speak about the impact of political decisions on their lives and taking responsibility with the proposals given by them, to solve their own problems, must be the priority of any organization that defends human rights of girls, boys and adolescents ”.
The event was attended by the Collective for the Rights of Children and Adolescents and the Argentine Committee for the Follow-up and Application of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CASACIDN), from Argentina; the National Forum for Children and Adolescents (Fórum Nacional DCA), the National Movement for Human Rights (MNDH) and the National Articulação dos Defesa das Crianças e Adolescentes (ANCED Seção DCI) of Brazil; the Chilean Forum for the Rights of the Child and the Childhood and Youth NGO Network (ROIJ) of Chile; the Committee on the Rights of the Child of Uruguay (CDNU) and the National Association of Development-Oriented Non-Governmental Organizations (ANONG) of Uruguay and the Coordinator for the Rights of Children and Adolescents (CDIA) of Paraguay.
Media contact:
Verónica Morales, Regional Communication Officer #TejiendoRedesInfancia +52 1 55 5620 9309
Image Credit: Kuanish Reymbaev on Unsplash
