DECLARATION OF THE MEETING OF THE FIRST SPOUSES OF CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

 20 - 22  August, 2000, San Salvador, El Salvador


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 WE: 

Lorena Clare de Rodríguez, First Lady of Costa Rica;  Evelyn Morataya de Portillo, First Lady of Guatemala; Mary Flake de Flores, First Lady of Honduras; María Fernanda Flores de Alemán, First Lady of Nicaragua; Ruby Moscoso de Young, First Lady of Panama; Rosa Gómez de Mejía, First Lady of Dominican Republic and Lourdes Rodríguez de Flores, First Lady of El Salvador.

CONSIDERING:

The strong desire to have access to modern technological tools with which we may come to know the real situation of children and adolescents in our countries, in order to achieve a better orientation of national policies and plans, and to do concrete work to guarantee the protection and integral development of children and adolescents, especially those in situations of risk, disability, and social exclusion. 

AGREE:

  1. To promote constant communication between the public governing bodies and organizations that run child and adolescent programs in the region, in order to prevent, identify and seek solutions to problems such as:  the lack of identity, child abuse, trafficking of children and adolescents, child labor, sexual and commercial exploitation, and the use and abuse of drugs, among others. 
  2. To request the Inter-American Children's Institute to provide technical support and identify sources of funding to design and implement Child and Adolescent Information System in the countries of the area where it has not yet been installed, according to the needs indicated by each government; and to also request that existing Systems be strengthened.
  3. To urge the creation of a Regional Child and Adolescent Information System, based on the information systems promoted by the Inter-American Children's Institute, which will support the constant monitoring of the fulfillment of the rights of children and adolescents and the preparation of annual reports on this situation.
  4. To promote permanent tools that provide a source for consultation and updating of documents, studies of special situations, organizations, projects, Internet URLs, and other references of interest in the field of children and adolescents.
  5. To request the Inter-American Preparatory Committee on Children's Issues for the 2001 Summit of the Americas to present the aforementioned Regional Child Information System, proposed by the Central American region and the Dominican Republic as an alternative for monitoring policies and the rights of children and adolescents in the Americas, beginning that same year, which has been named Inter-American Year of the Child and Adolescent.
  6. To request the Inter-American Children's Institute for technical support and the identification of funding  sources for designing and implementing the Child and Adolescent Information System in the countries that do not have this instrument, and to strengthen existing systems.
  7. To thank Lourdes María Rodríguez de Flores, First Lady of  El Salvador and the Inter-American Children's Institute, for holding this meeting; and to also thank the people of El Salvador for their hospitality.

Signed in the city of San Salvador, in seven original copies, at three o'clock p.m. on August 21, 2000.

 

Lourdes Rodríguez deFlores                                                   Lorena Clare de Rodríguez      
           El Salvador                                                                            Costa Rica            

María Fernanda F. de Alemán                                                 Ruby Moscoso de Young 
             Nicaragua                                                                            Panama 

Rosa Gómez de Mejía                                                            Evelyn Morataya de Portillo 
Dominican Republic                                                                           Guatemala        
                                              

                                                 Mary Flake de Flores
                                                         Honduras