OPENING
SPEECH BY LIC. ALEJANDRO BONASSO,
DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE IIN
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OPENING
SPEECH BY LIC. ALEJANDRO BONASSO, |
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It has not been easy to be able to select such a distinguished group of presenters, commentators and participants as we will have for this cycle. I
think this is a sort of present that the Uruguayans make to themselves by
getting together a select group of pediatricians, technical personnel and
professionals of the region and at the same time is a service to the
region made with the same spirit that inspired the founders of the Inter-American
Children's Institute. Even though the IIN has its headquarters in
Montevideo, its founders always thought in terms of its service to the
region, beyond national borders.Without going any further I am reminded of
Dr. Enrique Rodríguez Fabregat, Minister of Public Instruction, speaking
at the founding ceremony of the IIN in 1927, where he availed himself of
the opportunity to proclaim what he called "The table of the Rights
of the Child", many of its articles being instruments of great
validity even today. Let's highlight some:"Right to maintain and
develop his/her own personality" (Art. 4). "Right to social
consideration" (Art. 8) all for the child; abolition of the juridical
distinction between legitimate and natural child". Sentences such as
"the child is only a child, he has the right to have parents".
To
remember those documents inspires us again. There was talk about
transforming of orphanages and reformatories for minors, where the block
system destroys individual personality, into family colonies of education
and work organized in small social groups where a father and a mother
could share the affection for their own children with a small group of
homeless children. Many of those concepts, seventy years later, are being
reflected upon and INAME is making of them objects of revision. It
is surprising to find then a right generally forgotten in future revisions:
the right to happiness (Art. 9) "The right to be a child in order to
become a man, the right to mold, through a healthy body and a clean soul,
the workers of freedom, the architects of the world conscience." I
thought that remembering Dr. Rodríguez Fabregat on this occasion, as well
as quoting those passages that are at the foundation of this house, would
be a source of inspiration to all of us. At the same time, as Director
General, I feel that somehow it is you and your work that are fulfilling
the mission of this institution as a specialized organization of the
Organization of America States to look after the affairs relating to
children. To
be a specialized organization for children today is not easy because of
the broad spectrum of concerns and at the same time, the Statutes of the
IIN require of us to be a forum and place for dialog. I
hope that through the different modules of this seminar we will have the
opportunity to set in motion a round table of dialog that will be
replicated both in real time and through the Internet. This dialog
welcomes input from all spheres and levels, multidisciplinary perspectives,
people involved with the public sector, people holding high
responsibilities, people in the non-government sector. The IIN is doing a
lot of work through its web page, which is often visited and provides a
good service to people in the region working on topics related to children. The
Executive Committee of
the Inter-American Children's Institute met this year for the first time
via Internet. There
is very rich material published in the web page. This technical vehicle
developed in Uruguay will provide a service to the region, with the
intention that other countries will follow the lines of reflection and
analysis and will share their own conclusions and recommendations. So,
I welcome you again, I thank you for being here and I hope that you will
share and fulfill the high expectations that I have today, dealing with a
topic as important and transcendent as the family. Thank you very much. |