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DECLARATION OF THE 
NINETEENTH PAN AMERICAN CHILD CONGRESS

The delegates of the Member states of the Organization of American States (OAS) to the Nineteenth Pan American Child Congress held in Mexico City on 27-29 October, 2004, after having discussed and analyzed its main theme “The Family: Basis for the Integral Development of Children and Adolescents”,   

CONSIDERING: 

1. That in the framework of the Inter-American System, the “Inter-American Declaration on the Family” approved by the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (AG/RES. 678 XIII-0/83) declares that “Every human being, especially every boy and girl, has the right to a family and to the stability of the family institution;”

2. That sub-paragraph 4 of paragraph 137 in Advisory Opinion No. 17 of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of August 2002 stated that “the family is the primary context for children’s development and exercise of their rights”, thus establishing that the exercise or protection of rights is not possible without the family as such primary –and social– environment. The Court further stated that “the State must support and strengthen the family through the various measures it requires to best fulfill its natural function in this field.” The state should, by means of its whole social institutional structure, protect the integrity of the family in order to enable it to perform its social role of protection of and respect for children’s rights.

3. That the Nineteenth Pan American Child Congress was convened within the framework of the tenth anniversary of the International Year of the Family established in Resolution 44/82 adopted by the Forty-fourth Session of the United Nations General Assembly on 8 December, 1989;

4. That this year is also the anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by the United Nations on 20 November, 1989;

5. That the Convention on the Rights of the Child sets forth a series of principles and provisions that identify the family as a key element for the integral development and protection of children’s rights;

6. That the introduction to Chapter 18 on “Children and Youth” in the Plan of Action of the Third Summit of the Americas stated that the promotion of children’s rights, as well as their development, protection and participation are essential to ensure the realization of their full potential; the Plan also proposes such specific actions as “... Identify, share and promote best practices (...), particularly community-based approaches aimed at supporting families, meeting the needs of children and adolescents at risk and protecting them…”;  

7. That Resolution AG/RES 1951 (XXXIII-O/03) on the PROMOTION AND PROTECTION OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF CHILDREN IN THE AMERICAS adopted by the OAS General assembly on 10 June, 2003 urged the Member states to watch over the inclusion of children’s rights in the work agenda of specialized organizations and conferences, and organs and entities of the Organization of American States;  

8. That the Inter-American Children’s Institute has undertaken a significant effort for the promotion and protection of children’s rights within the framework of its 2000-2004 Strategic Plan; 

9. That such Strategic Plan has enabled the IIN to move forward on the implementation of public policies, regulatory prototypes, and information mechanisms in the OAS member states, thus reasserting the role of the family as a protective environment and the state’s assurance of the enforcement of children’s rights.

BEARING IN MIND:

1. The Keynote Addresses that referred to each of the six sub-themes of the Congress, as follows: FIRST: “The Family as the Institution with Primary Responsibility for the Protection, Upbringing, and Integral Development of Children and Adolescents”; SECOND: “Evolution of the Child’s Relationship with the Family”; THIRD: “Children’s Rights and their Relation to the Different Types of Families”; FOURTH: “The Doctrine of Integral Protection and Current Family Law”; FIFTH: QUINTO: “Family Violence and its impact on Child Development”, and SIXTH: “Promoting a Culture of Respect for Children’s Rights: The Roles of the Family, the State, Civil Society and the Media”;
   
   

2.  The conclusions of the three working groups on the above mentioned sub-themes which, among other aspects, establish:

-          That within the family both father and mother play a key role in the integral protection of children, which evolves together with children’s psycho-social development shifting from a greater dependence to a greater autonomy;

-          That the gradual exercise of children’s rights also follows the same evolution process, which should be necessarily healthy and conducive; 

-          That there is a need for  a right-based approach to training  personnel who operate child and family programs; 

-          That the heterogeneity and cultural diversity that characterize the countries in the region bring about a variety of family structures and organizations which justifies conducting technical studies on the rights of children and their families;

-          That efforts to protect children's rights may benefit from studies of the family within legal frameworks in the region; on family law within the framework of the doctrine of integral protection, and on children's right to live with a family within the framework of the principle of the best interest of the child.

-          That the existence of important sectors of Latin American societies living in exclusion and poverty conditions has been confirmed and has an impact on family organization and structure and generates dysfunction, precludes adequate child protection, restricts child opportunities, and promotes a vicious cycle of right infringement and poverty reproduction;

-          That such situation calls for additional attention from the authorities responsible for designing and enforcing coordinated, cross-sectional, integral and overall child social policies.

-          That family violence has gained an alarming dimension in the region, considering that its main victims are children whose rights are severely violated;

-          That states recognize some progress in the awareness and approach of this issue, but the difficulty persists of how to assess its true magnitude due to the absence of objective data and, in many cases, to its lack of visibility as it mostly occurs within the privacy of family coexistence;

-          That communication and information are key social processes within any social organization;

-          That communication in particular plays a major role in politics, economics and culture of all societies throughout the world and are determining factors of the dynamics and the functional nature of the various family structures;  

-          That it has been consequently demonstrated that the media play a determining role in the creation of public opinion;

-          That, within the framework of democracies, the media are the natural environment for peoples to exercise their right to free expression, and

-          That the family is the natural environment for the generation of a right-based culture,

DECLARE:

1. That the political will stated by the Member states at this Nineteenth Pan American Child Congress aims to recognize, support, protect and promote the family as the main environment for the protection and advocacy of children’s rights.
   
   

2. That the six sub-themes discussed during the Congress have become a valuable platform of knowledge that allows for understanding and ranking families according to their different roles and functions, as well as for fostering a series of concrete actions to be undertaken by the Inter-American Children’s Institute and the OAS member states
   
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3. That those actions reflect in the seven resolutions adopted by this Congress which will be duly considered for the preparation and implementation of child legal provisions and policies.

RECOMMEND: 

1. Subject to consideration by the Directing Council in its next special meeting in Brazil in 2005, that the Inter-American Children’s Institute include, among others, the following mandates provided for in the seven Congress resolutions in its 2005-2008 Strategic Plan:

-         The preparation and presentation to the Directing Council of an Inter-American Project on Public Policies under a family and community-based approach;

-         The design of a training course on “Children, Family and Rights” for child and family program operators and managers; 

-         The preparation of an integral study on the rights of children and their families;

-         A comparative family law survey in the countries of the region;

-         The preparation of a study on the interpretation and application of the principle of the best interest of the child in the framework of justice and family law, and

-         The compilation of experience gained by government organizations and civil society entities in the application of intervention models on family violence in the member states.

-         The development of effective strategies to sensitize social communication practitioners on the importance of their role for the protection and promotion of the rights of children and their families. 

2. This Declaration to be as widely disseminated as possible through the channels provided by the Organization of American States and those available in the member states.

In Mexico City, on the twenty-ninth day of October, 2004.