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Mexico City
27-29 October, 2004

  IIN/RES. 1 (XIX-04)

 “The Family as the Institution with Primary Responsibility for the Protection, Upbringing, and Integral Development of Children”
(Submitted by the Delegation of Mexico)

 

THE NINETEENTH PAN AMERICAN CHILD CONGRESS,  

CONSIDERING:

 

  1. That resolution AG/RES. 678 (XIII-O/83) adopted by the OAS General Assembly approved the Inter-American Declaration on the Family, the first article of which states that “Every human being, especially every boy and girl, has the right to a family and to the stability of the family institution”;

  1. That the operative paragraph of resolution AG/RES. 1951 (XXXIII-O/03) adopted by the OAS General Assembly states:  “… Further, to reaffirm support for the work of the Inter-American Children’s Institute as a specialized organization of the Organization of American States, which is entrusted with promoting the study of subjects relating to mothers, children, adolescents, and the family in the Americas and the adoption of measures for solving their problems, in particular its activities to assist member states in their efforts to promote the establishment of national children’s systems and the professionalization of the national authorities entrusted with the topic of children”;
  1. That the third consideration in resolution CD/RES. 19 (78-R/03) adopted by the Directing Council of the Inter-American Children’s Institute reads: “That such occasion is deemed to be suitable for addressing family-related issues, taking into account their significance for the integral development of children and adolescents, and that it coincides with the celebration of the tenth Anniversary of the International Year of the Family in 2004”;

  1. That the Plan of Action adopted by the Third Summit of the Americas held in Québec City, Canada, in April 2001, established the need for the States to “ ... Identify, share and promote best practices and approaches, particularly community-based approaches aimed at supporting families, meeting the needs of children and adolescents at risk and protecting them … ”;

  2. That several international instruments currently in force establish that family is the basic group of society and the natural environment for the growth and well being of all its members, particularly the children;

  3. That the 2000-2004 Strategic Plan of the IIN has enabled this Specialized Organization to make progress concerning the implementation of public policies, regulatory prototypes, and information mechanisms that allow for preserving children’s rights while permanently reaffirming the role of the family as a protective environment and the role of the state as guarantor of the enforcement of those inherent rights;

  4. That as part of the celebrations for the tenth anniversary of the International Year of the Family, the General Assembly of the United Nations, in resolution 57/164 of January 16, 2003, urged all United Nations bodies, the specialized agencies, the regional commissions, and the intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations concerned with family-related matters to make every possible effort towards the implementation of the objectives of the celebration by integrating the family perspective into the planning and decision-making processes;

  5. The need to devise comprehensive public policies for the family and the need to strengthen the institutions entrusted with carrying them out.

RESOLVES:

  1. To urge the Member States to implement actions aimed at improving conditions for the integral well-being of the family, by strengthening the educational function of the father and mother, and recognizing it as the arena in which a culture of rights is exercised and promoted.

  2. To request that the Inter-American Children’s Institute include, in its next Strategic Plan, actions to help reinforce the family as the natural and social environment for the development and welfare of children.

  3. To ask the Inter-American Children's Institute to draw up and present to the Directing Council an Inter-American Project for Public Policy, with an awareness of the family and the community, which, in a cross-cutting fashion, will serve to recognize, support, protect, and disseminate the institution of the family as the main arena for the exercise and promotion of a culture of respect for the rights of children.

  4. To recommend that the Member States of the Organization of American States and the organs of the inter-American system support the implementation of this resolution by incorporating awareness of the family into their different planning and decision-making processes.