As
part of the celebrations of the 75th anniversary of the
foundation of the Inter-American Children's Institute (IIN), we decided to
organize from Uruguay a cycle of conferences on the Family, to be realized
via Internet, in order to interact with all the other countries of the
Region.
Why
this topic? Several answers can be given, but the most evident and least
controversial to us is that "the family", as a matrix of primary
identity for the child, is the privileged place for the protection of his/her
integrity, the promotion of his/her comprehensive development and the
facilitation of his/her effective socialization as a new citizen with full
rights.
So
"the family", as a place of belonging and welcoming to the human
being, becomes one of our fundamental concerns, both to be strengthened by
specific technical interventions and to serve as support for public
policies on children based in the doctrine of comprehensive protection and
respect for their rights, creating opportunities for a healthy life within
and among families. "The family" ,then, has been chosen one more
time as the starting point of reflection as an institution that might be
perfected in the future and that might take different forms through time
and cultures but that so far has proven to be irreplaceable.
Within
this context we have invited well known authorities from a broad range of
disciplines to express and share their opinions and discuss their
knowledge on this topic. The conclusions arrived to so far are
professional and show a certain degree of consensus but at the same time
they are the expression of a personal conviction.
The
important contributions received so far are relevant and deserve
publication in the written traditional format. For that reason we have
decided to devote some issues of our Bulletin "Infancia" to
share the outcome of research, first hand experience and reflections that
will show, among other things the
kind of family we are building for the children of our region, what
kind of family the children desire, what is involved for
governments to have in place policies regarding children, what aspects of
the globalized culture favor or hinder, from a perspective of rights, a
family in which children can build their happy and full identity.
Alejandro Bonasso
DIRECTOR GENERAL