AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE OFFICE OF THE FIRST LADY OF THE REPUBLIC OF HONDURAS AND THE INTER

AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE OFFICE OF THE FIRST LADY
OF THE REPUBLIC OF HONDURAS
AND
THE INTER-AMERICAN CHILDREN'S INSTITUTE

The First Lady of the Republic of Honduras, Mrs. Aguas Ocaña de Maduro, and the Director General of the Inter-American Children's Institute, Lic. Alejandro Bonasso, accompanied on an ad honorem basis by the Delegate of the Republic of Honduras and President of Honor of the Directing Council of the Inter-American Children's Institute, Dr. Fernando Tomé Abarca, hereby sign the present Agreement, subject to the following recitals and clauses:

CONSIDERING:

Article 1.

That the Inter-American Children's Institute (hereinafter known as the IIN) is a Specialized Organization of the Organization of American States, created by resolution of the Fourth Pan American Child Congress of 1924 and founded in 1927, to promote cooperation programs among countries of the American Hemisphere addressed to improve the situation of children, youth and the family in the health, education, social, cultural and legal areas.

Article 2.

That the Education Secretariat of the Republic of Honduras runs the Programa de Infopedagogía e Informática Educativa (Computer Education Program, hereinafter known as the PIIE), which consists of the integration of computer education processes through the use of information technologies in planning, development, strengthening and extension of the subjects included in the Basic National Educational Curriculum.

Article 3.

That the Republic of Honduras has ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Article 4.

That, in the past decade, the Office of the First Lady and the IIN have carried out a series of joint activities, such as the installation of the Child Information System (SIPI) at the former Junta Nacional de Bienestar Social (now the Instituto Hondureño de la Niñez y la Familia, or Honduran Child and Family Institute) and the installation of the National Child and Family Information Center at that same institution (containing information on organizations, projects and documents on children’s rights in the region, which is accessed by more than 12,000 user organizations).

Article 5.

That within its 2000-2004 Strategic Plan approved by the Directing Council, and through its Inter-American Child and Family Information Program (PIINFA), the IIN has developed a set of tools to promote information on children’s rights, intended for persons who work with children, as well as children themselves.

Article 6.

That the products developed include: animated videos (with performances by singers from all over the region) broadcast on more than 100 of the region’s open-access and cable television channels; digital children’s books about children’s rights; songs about the rights enshrined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child; and interactive video games on children’s rights.

Article 7.

That, in response to negotiations undertaken by the IIN with the support of the General Secretariat of the OAS, the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the OAS has manifested the intention to donate computers for installation in schools (one to a maximum of two computers per school).

CLAUSE 1 – OBJECTIVES

The objective of the present Agreement is to establish the terms for the installation and use of computers for purposes of education and dissemination of information on the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

CLAUSE 2 – TERMS

Article 1.

Through the Republic of Korea, the IIN shall present 60 Pentium IV PCs (with speakers, screen, modem, CD-ROM and DVD) to the Office of the First Lady, for the Computer Education Program (PIIE). These computers shall be installed in Tegucigalpa.

Article 2.

The IIN shall be responsible for providing the package of digital educational tools that it has developed, to be installed on the computers before their delivery, so that they may be used at the public schools which the PIIE shall choose and report to the IIN.

Article 3.

The Office of the First Lady shall be responsible for receiving the donated computers, completing their corresponding paperwork, and ensuring their proper transport, installation, use and maintenance, for the full duration of the present Agreement.

Article 4.

In the six months following the installation of the computers, the IIN shall evaluate the impact of this donation. The IIN shall also continue to incorporate, into these computers, the technology and instruments that it develops.

Article 5.

The Office of the First Lady agrees that the computers and their incorporated technology shall be used exclusively for the purposes established in the present Agreement.

Article 6.

The Office of the First Lady shall publicize these activities carried out by the IIN (as a Specialized Organization of the OAS) and the Government of the Republic of Korea.

CLAUSE 3 – FINAL PROVISIONS

The present Agreement shall enter into force upon its signature by the Parties, and shall be effective for a period of 24 months.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the representatives of both Parties, duly authorized for this purpose, hereby sign the present Agreement in two equally valid copies on the eleventh of March of the year two thousand and four.

Aguas Ocaña de Maduro                                                                         Alejandro Bonasso
First Lady of Honduras                                                                          Director General of the IIN

Fernando Tomé Abarca
Delegate of Honduras
President of Honor of the IIN

The Director General of the IIN signs this agreement on an ad referendum basis, subject to the approval of the IIN Directing Council.