Forum on Arab children set for Wednesday

Manama, Apr6(BNA) A key forum highlighting the plight of children in the instable Arab region will open on Wednesday (April 8) under the patronage of Social Development Minister Faeqa bint Said Al-Saleh. The Social Development Ministry is organising the symposium in cooperation with the Family and Children Directorate, an offshoot of the Arab League General-Secretariat. The two-day forum will affirm the right of children to be protected amid critical developments which are unfolding in the Arab region and the Middle East. Assistant Undersecretary for Social care and rehabilitation Badriya Al-Jeeb said that the participants in the symposium would discuss ways of protecting children from the traumatic effect of social and political upheavals in the region and preventing their exploitation. Ina statement on the eve of the forum, she stressed the importance of protecting children so as to avert any detrimental repercussions on development, social peace and the future of the Arab region. She underlined the need to heed and enforce the values and principles which are endorsed in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), annexed protocols, The 'A World Fit for Children' declaration which was released by the UN in 2002, in addition to the UN Millennium Development Goal and other international covenants.