"It`s a rare opportunity for us to promote a child-friendly Asia Pacific," Minister Linda said in her opening remarks.
The conference will run until July 2, 2011. The decision to appoint Indonesia as the host was made at the International Conference on Children in the City in Florence, Italy, in 2010.
She said her ministry had adopted a policy to create or promote child friendly conditions in cities and districts since 2006, to meet the rights of children to grow and be protected optimally so they can become quality human resources in the future.
The policy was in line with Indonesia`s commitment to the international Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the World Fit for Children (WFC), according to the minister.
The theme of the International Conference on Child Friendly Asia Pacific 2011 was "Engaging Children".
The opening ceremony of the conference was attended by among others Karen Malone, chairperson of the Child Friendly Asia Pacific Networking, Central Java Governor Bibit Waluyo and Surakarta Mayor Joko Widodo.
The focus of the conference is on engaging children as active citizens and working with children to evaluate the quality of their environments.
A number of the conference`s keynote speakers include Dr. Judith Ennew from Knowing Children, Malaysia and Roger Hart as well as a number of UNICEF representatives working with UNICEF`s International self-assessment project from Brazil, the Philippines and Sudan.
In addition to the main program, a special two-day symposium will be conducted concurrently by CFC network members from Japan on Children and Risks in Natural Disasters.
An executive meeting for CFAP will also be held as well as a meeting on the CFAP accreditation program with many of the key UNICEF offices around the region represented.
(Uu.F001/HAJM)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
