World Congresses
5th World Congress on Family Law and Children’s Rights, World Trade and Convention Centre, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, 23 - 26 August 2009
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4th World Congress on Family Law and Children’s Rights, Cape Town, South Africa, 20 - 23 March 2005
Children from the Christel School who attended the World Congress in Cape Town seen here on the steps of the Cape Town International Convention Centre, March 2005. Photo Dr Rajendra Pillay. |
In March 2005 in Cape Town, South Africa approximately 700 judges, lawyers and other professionals committed to children’s rights gathered at the 4th World Congress on Family Law and Children's Rights.
The venue was the Cape Town International Convention Centre. This was the fourth such meeting following the inaugural Congress in Sydney, Australia in 1993; the second in San Francsico, USA in 1997; and the third in Bath, England in 2001. It marked the 15th anniversary of the most widely ratified human rights convention of all time, the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCROC).
Malik, a severely malnourished one-year-old boy, is comforted by his mother, Hawa, in a UNICEF-supported therapeutic feeding centre at the El Fasher Teaching Hospital in El Fasher, capital of North Darfur. Several other women are visible behind them. Courtesy UNICEF. |
Although real progress has been made since the Convention was adopted, children are still dying in appalling numbers from preventable diseases such as malaria. Some 300,000 are child soldiers, or otherwise victims of the ultimate obscenity, war. Over 1 million are exploited every year in the multi-billion dollar sex industry.
Children are bought and sold by organised crime rings and moved around the world as slaves. More than 14 million are now orphaned by HIV/AIDS; many of these will act as family heads and carry the disease themselves. 65% of the 121 million children in the world who are not in school are girls. Many more million children live in poverty and hunger.
It was these issues and many others that brought together international delegates from throughout the world and in particular from the African continent to review the success or otherwise of UNCROC in its 15 years of operation.
Madam Graca Machel Patron of the 4th World Congress opened the event with a stirring personal call, which had the audience on their feet.
Her message was simple. Don’t hesitate to do what you can as an individual to protect the rights of children no matter how small that act might seem. Do it now was her strong message. This theme concentrated the minds of the delegates in an area where the vastness of the task can often seem almost overwhelming.
Madam Machel had been preceded by the African Children’s Choir who set an optimistic tone for the event with their stirring singing and dancing. The choir had just returned from George in South Africa where they had performed at the 46664 Concert in front of Nelson Mandela and his wife Graca Machel.
At the George Concert Nelson Mandela said:
"We are all affected by the Aids pandemic. But more than others this epidemic carries the face of women. For it is women who bear the most significant burden of HIV and Aids.….
"For every woman and girl violently attacked, we reduce our humanity. For every woman forced into unprotected sex because men demand this, we destroy dignity and pride. Every woman who has to sell her life for sex we condemn to a lifetime in prison. For every moment we remain silent, we conspire against our women. For every woman infected by HIV, we destroy a generation….
"We must be honest and open about the power relationships between men and women in our society, and we must help build a more enabling and supportive environment that puts the role of women center stage in this struggle…
"Each one of us - sister and brother, mother and father, teacher and student, priest and parishioner, manager and worker, Presidents and Prime Ministers, must add a voice to this call for action…
"Not tomorrow, or the next week - but now…
"You can help break the silence. Talk about HIV and Aids. You can urge your leaders to do more and act now. You can show more care and compassion. You can protect our women and the next generation."
See: World Congress on Family Law and Rights of Children website
 3rd World Congress on Family Law and Children’s Rights
Introduction
The World Congress on Family Law and the Rights of Children and Youth brings together lawyers, judges, health care professionals, politicians, community and government representatives, human rights advocates and representatives from the private and business sectors who share a common concern about the rights of children.
The primary focus of the Congress is to develop outcomes that directly benefit those who are especially vulnerable and disadvantaged, particularly children and young people.
The World Congress meets every four years to assess developments in the law, public policy and affiliated professional areas that impact upon the protection of children.
In 1992 the First World Congress in Sydney highlighted the need to develop legislative and law enforcement models to support community action against sexual exploitation of children.
In 1997 the Second World Congress in San Francisco set in train debate regarding the development of legally enforceable codes of conduct for multinational and national businesses to prevent the exploitation of children through labour.
In 2001 it is anticipated that as an outcome of the Congress, a formalised world-wide network of children's advocates will be established to provide advocacy, protection and support for the children of the world.
The Hon Justice Rodney K. Burr AM
Co-Chairman
Stuart G.Fowler AM
Co-Chairman
Objectives and Rationale
Patron: H.E. Mary Robinson, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
The overall theme of the 2001 World Congress will be “International Cooperation for the Protection of Children”.
A significant purpose of the Congress will be to create an international network of lawyers and associated professionals working for the protection of children, to be known as “The International Children’s Rights Protection Network”.
Under its advocacy functions the Network will, through cooperation with local professional organisations, represent children or assist in the representation of children in landmark cases where the outcome is likely to affect the protection of children generally, and to provide systems of pro bono representation of children where serious injustice would result otherwise.
Under its educational functions the Network will:
assist with the education of lawyers, judges and administrators in the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Hague Conventions on Children and other relevant conventions;
advocate and encourage the ratification and implementation of international instruments for the protection of children and the adoption of “child-friendly” laws and policies;
by the use of the media create climates for change by generating public desire and political will for change;
assist in partnership with others, the training of journalists and other media representatives to better, more appropriately and sensitively report on the rights of children and related issues; and
the Network will actively seek to become involved in international forum providing its perspective and expertise as appropriate.
The four themes of the Congress are:
(a) Letting Children and Youth Speak Out for Themselves
This is intended to deal with the dilemma of child autonomy and the protection of children from harm. Can a child refuse beneficial medical treatment? Can a 17 year old decide to become a prostitute? When and how should the wishes of children be taken into account in family disputes? To give effectiveness to this theme, it is proposed that there will be a Youth Forum in which proposals for future action will be worked out.
(b) International Instruments for Cooperation
This theme will explore the international treaties and conventions already in force which seek to protect to protect the rights of children. They include the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Hague Conventions on Child Abduction, Inter-country Adoption, and Protection of Children. There are also regional conventions in Europe, Africa and the Americas which will be considered.
(c) The Impact of Social Change on Family Law
This will deal with the changes in lifestyle, technology and international mobility which have had their impact on family law. The topics in this category should be of special interest to practitioners. They will include: international family law litigation; the division of property; same sex and single parent family structures; the dealing with migrant communities and cultural diversity; international maintenance and child support; changes to non-possessory forms of parent-child relationships in several countries.
(d) The Protection of the Human Dignity of Children
This is a wide ranging theme which will deal with issues such as child labour, child prostitution and pornography. It will also deal with the rights of children in legal proceedings, including criminal, proceedings.
 2nd World Congress on Family Law and Rights of Children, San Francisco, USA, 3 - 7 June 1997
The Second World Congress was held in San Francisco in June 1997.
It was held in conjunction with the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts.
It was honoured by having as its Honorary Chair, Hillary Rodham Clinton, the then First Lady of the United States and an ardent campaigner and advocate for the rights of children.
Over 1600 registrants from more than 50 nations around the world attended.
Associated with it was a Youth Forum which contributed to the discussions.
In its final communiqué it reiterated steps to be taken to protect children from armed conflict and organized violence, access by children to health facilities and representation for the enforced removal of children from indigenous communities. The Youth Forum called for action against the exploitation of children.
The Congress noted that a number of steps had been taken to seek to redress the evil of exploitative child labor. There had however been, regrettably at that time, little action on the part of States in ratifying the ILO convention on children in work. It proposed that a new convention be established to deal with the worst forms of child exploitative labour. It was thought that such a convention would attract a greater enthusiasm for adoption and implementation particularly in countries where children worked in familial undertakings such as agrarian labour. The move was controversial but a convention was subsequently drawn and has been signed.
More needs to be done to create an international accord on the adoption and implementation of that convention.
As an initiative, the Congress raised with multi-national corporations the issue of adoption of voluntary codes of conduct in the employment and treatment of children not only in their respective enterprises, but in enterprises supplying their manufacturing. The Congress sought to encourage this form of self-regulation and its work continues on this task.
In our subsequent the Fourth World Congress in Cape Town, it was reported that substantial progress was being made in this field.
The Second Congress was able to devote certain funds towards the building of two schools in Central America and a community farming plot for Central American women whose husbands were some thousands of kilometers away, working in mines.
The Congress also urged individual States within the United States of America to consider adopting in principle UNCROC, as their country had not done so at a Federal level.
 1st World Congress on Family Law and Rights of Children, Sydney, Australia, July 1993
Over 850 delegates from 54 countries came to Sydney for the 1st World Congress. This Congress brought together practicing lawyers, Judges, academics, politicians, and those in the caring professions who shared a common concern for family and the present and future generations of children and a concern for the maintenance and protection of human rights, particularly rights of children.
These groups have supported our subsequent Congresses.
In its final communiqué, the Congress called for:-
- The universal ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child a task which but for ratification by the United States is now complete;
- The protection of those rights by the implementation and enforcement of metropolitan laws which give recognition and protection to children’s rights. This task still has much to be done before it can be said to be completed but some progress is being made;
- For effective international action to eliminate child labour and trafficking for prostitution and enacting metropolitan laws against child prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation and all other forms of abuse of children;
- For the strengthening and extension of international conventions for the child abduction and the Convention on the Recovery of Maintenance.
- Finally, it called for the creation of effective machinery to monitor and ensure that the rights recognized in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child were protected.
This Congress was a promoter of laws subsequently enacted by the Australian Parliament which operated extraterritorially and which rendered justiciable and punishable before Australian Courts, offences committed by its residents in abusing children overseas. This model of legislation has now been echoed in legislation passed in many countries throughout the world.
The Congress sponsored the creation of the LawAsia Children’s Trust and contributed the sum in the order of $160,000 towards the Trust to be administered by LawAsia’s Family Law & Family Rights Section. It has been used for a number of child orientated purposes including the support of Asian prosecutors of offences against children.
Importantly this Congress as with each subsequent Congress has attracted publicity and been a tool for public education. The Congress has been a catalyst for change in its condemnation and, where appropriate, commendation of actions and policies of States which uphold the rights of children. This voice is an important part of the process since the generation of political will to act can only be achieved when societies are informed and aware.
The process of public education too has created somewhat of a sea change in some exploitative societies particularly in the developed world where exploitative conduct previously not talked about is now publicly and privately reviled and eschewed. |
