Final Report

On 24 and April 25, 2008 took place in the city of Queretaro, Mexico, the Inter-American Meeting on the “Exchange of Experience and Programs in Child Care”. It was jointly organized by the Inter-American Children's Institute (IIN) and the National System for Integral Development of the Family (SNDIF).

The aim of this meeting was to promote awareness, exchange and systematization of concrete experiences through a rights approach, for children and adolescents policy orientation, of whose design, development and impact, collective an innovative learning could be obtained in the American hemisphere.

The meeting, which convened nearly 130 participants, was inaugurated by the Chief of Staff of the OAS Secretary General, Ricardo Dominguez, the President of the IIN Directing Council, Sara Oviedo, the Director General of the IIN, María de los Dolores Aguilar Marmolejo, the wife of the President of Mexico, Margarita Zavala, the Foreign Secretary, Patricia Espinoza Castellano, the Director General of SNDIF, María Cecilia Landerreche Gomez Morin, among other authorities; also Delegates and Alternate Delegates to the IIN Directing Council, representatives of the governing bodies of public policies on children of the OAS Member States, technical specialists from state programs, observers of organizations from the civil society of the region, as well as intergovernmental organizations of the Inter-American System and the United Nations.

There were three central matters:

a) Experiences on child and adolescent participation in the promotion, implementation and defense of their rights.
b) Experiences on family and community strategies in the care of children deprived of parental care.
c) Experiences on follow-up and independent monitoring in the implementation of public policies with rights approach.

The work of the commissions for each of the mentioned matters, was preceded by the presentations of the specialists, Javier Moctezuma Barragan, Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission, Patricia Lamego, Coordinator of the Federal Administrative Central Authority-Secretariat for Human Rights, Ministry of Justice, Jorge Baxter, Coordinator of the Inter-American Program on Education for Democratic Values and Practices, Department of Education and Culture of the Organization of American States, whose conferences collaborated to the orientation of subsequent debate.

The experience of the Meeting as a whole allowed to achieve a high degree of knowledge and exchange by the presentations done in the commissions, as well as useful conclusions and recommendations for the definition of technical guidelines for action on public policies for children and adolescence.

The Inter-American Children’s Institute wants to thank all participants for their valuable participation at this Meeting and congratulates the various delegations for their efforts in promoting innovative proposals with rights approach.

We also invite the leaders of the various national, regional or local plans and programs, as well as those working in different levels of decision-making, to ensure the implementation and enforcement of the conclusions agreed at this meeting.

Finally, the IIN reiterates its disposal to cooperate with the Member States, the regional subgroups, the Inter-American System, and representatives of the agencies that participated as observers, to provide them with technical and human support in this renewed commitment in favor of children and adolescents of the region.

Access to basic documents of the event:

    Program
    Photos