A Conference with a difference !
On 15 December 1999 the broad expanse of space before the Grand Theatre Auditorium of Science City of Calcutta illuminated with the golden rays of the morning sun wore a festive look. Hundreds of children from schools all over the city assembled there waving little colourful flags in their hands as they marched in files towards the auditorium. The whole area was resonant with the bustle of their youthful voice. 
It was the opening of the First Ever Global Conference on Children 2000 AD where children were as valued participants as adults. The Conference was attended by participants almost from all major countries of the world. It was organised by IPER the welfare organisation of Calcutta with support from the Department of Women and Child Development Government of India. The well-known international philanthropic organisation PLAN International joined hands with IPER to make the undertaking a success.
The primary objective of the Conference was to commemorate the completion of a full decade of the UN Convention on the 1989 Rights of the Child. Uptill now as many as 191 countries of the world have ratified it vouching to implement its directives in the life of their children. The second and most important objective of the Conference has however been to take a stock of how much the directives of the Convention have been actually realised in the life of our children. Do all of them get food for their survival and a home to stay in night? Are their basic amenities like health care and nutrition duly taken care of? Do all the children of the world get the benefit of going to school? 

Why a Global Conference?

These are all legitimate rights that the UN Charter bestows on children but we know very well that the actual state of thing is far removed from that. The children of the world who are going to step on a new millennium, the Children 2000 AD, put these very questions to the adults of their generation. Do the adults take enough care to see that children have natural and unhindered growth? What has the adult society done to keep their pledges to the children? All these questions and many more were raised on the floor of the Conference and the adults were called upon to answer them. Specialists and well-known activists working for the rights of the child attended the Conference from all corners of the earth and reviewed the state of children in their own countries. They pointed out to the yawning lacuna that exists between what the children deserve and what they really get. The delegates from U.K., U.S., Europe, Africa, Russia, Asia and other parts of world spoke on the sad plight of children community in their countries having been unfortunate victims of adult neglect, abuse and exploitation.

Global Participation
One of the unique features of the Conference was the active participation of children themselves. Nearly one thousand children from different schools of Calcutta were present at the inauguration of the Conference.  Children coming from different states of the world both in India and outside held their own exclusive sessions where they reviewed the rights they enjoyed and rights that were denied to them. Special interactive sessions where adults exchanged views with the children face to face formed one of the major features of the day to day programme of the Conference. It was indeed a first ever in the true sense of the term. Never before was seen such effective and meaningful interaction between adults and children in a Conference. The inauguration programme started with the orchestra recital by the students of Don Bosco and was later followed by a very impressive dance performance by the children of IPER who welcomed the guests with burning lamps in their hands. They were joined by the children from PLAN International who mustered from different states of India and abroad with placards bearing the insignia of the different rights of children. 

Children’s Orchestra and Dance Recital
Dr. A.Ghosh, Director of IPER welcomed the guests explaining the relevance and objectives of the Conference. He said that the Conference was meant to act as a common platform for children and adults to work out the shape of the world that the children are going to inherit in the millennium to come. The Guest of Honour, Minister, Department of Social Welfare, West Bengal, Mr. Biswanath Chowdhury  said that despite several acts against child labour  and despite all laws protecting child rights there is still a high incidence of child labour which must be faught with all earnestness.

Inauguration  and Release of  Children’s Video Magazine
The next speaker Mr. Meindert Witzvliet (Netherlands) pointed out that children should be the centre of development for the future. They should be protected from all abuse and exploitation. He also said that child prostitution is the worst form of child labour as much as it is a social curse.
Mr. Mohan Thazhatu from Guatemala spoke on the Rights of the Child and described PLAN’s contribution on the Rights of the Child all over the world for more than 60 years. Mr. T.C. Dutt, former chief secretary, Government of West Bengal and advisor, IPER Development Foundation described the activities of IPER and how they in course of the last quarter of a century moulded themselves as a major welfare organisation in this part of India. Next followed the Inauguration ceremony and the release of the video magazine made by the children of PLAN named “Children have something to say” – a video magazine by Ms. Sumitra Mahajan, Minister, Department of Women and Child Development, Government of India. She said that in India people lay more stress on duties than on rights. “Dharma” plays an important role in Indian society. So it everybody is concerned about one’s own duties the rights of everyone will be automatically ensured. She also mentioned that if all the institutions and individuals do their duties faithfully the rights of the children will be ensured. 

Key-note Address
Ms. Kiran Aggarwal, Secretary, Department of Women and Child Development delivered the key address of the Conference where she said that since independence India has pledged complete commitment to the child in need. Though much has been achieved yet much remains to be done. It is not only poverty that is to be removed but many social evils which stand in the way of children’s development are also to be eradicated. The inauguration ceremony ended with the opening of an exhibition on the Rights of the Child set up by the children of PLAN. 

Plenary I :: Asserting Child Rights through  Global Networking
The first plenary started  with Dr. Usha Nayar, Professor of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India who spoke on “Asserting Children’s Right at a Global level” where she explained why global networking is necessary and how globalisation has affected economic structure, technology, communication throughout the world thus bringing great changes in the life of children. Dr. Saray Vannat of Cambodian National Council for Children spoke on “Girl Child Trafficking and Child Prostitute in Cambodia”. She dwelt on the sorrowful plight of girl children in Cambodia who have been victims of trafficking. She said that limited resources and poor infrastructure restricted government’s capacity to meet the rights of the child specially the victims of trafficking. Ms. Tahera Jabeen from Bangladesh Terre Des Hommes made a presentation on “Sexual Health of Children of Bangladesh”. In her presentation she highlighted the fact that in Bangladesh child abuse is prevalent in all sectors of the society and the average age of boys and girls abused is 11 years. She classified sexual abuse in two categories, non-commercial which generally takes place at home through near relations and commercial where the child is trafficked and compelled to participate in prostitution. She recommended the holding of awareness campaigns on this issue among children and adults.

Plenary II :: Combating child exploitation and abuse
Ms. Veena Lakhumalani from British Council, India pointed out in her presentation, “Let’s Talk About Child Sexual Abuse” that child protection from exploitation and abuse is one of the basic rights under the CRC. Mr. David Maidment from UK spoke on the children iving on the railway platform and around. He found that most of the runaway  children take shelter  in railway platforms and bus stations. His organisation Railway Children U.K works with a number  of NGOs in different countries. They identify children living on railway platforms  and then try to rehabilitate them giving them their basic rights to shelter, food education and protection. Mr. Mohan Thazhatu from Guatemala said that the rights of the child can be protected if proper monitoring and advocacy are done on the grassroots issues and action for the rights of the child is taken using local, national and global network of the NGOs. He pointed out that the fact that IPER is organising this Global Conference shows that if the NGOs are committed they can make a difference. Mme. Nguyen Thi Thuy Bao from the Vietnam Committee for Protection and Care of Children spoke on "Street Children and the CRC". She spoke in Vietnamese language which was interpreted by Mr. Luu. She spoke  on the achievements and challenges that Vietnam had been facing regarding the implementation of the CRC. They have stressed on protection, care and education of the children for which they have made models of protection and care such as, “Child-friendly village", "Cultural village", "Grand parents’ and children's club" and so on.

Plenary III & IV :: Child Protection and Child Participation
Dr. Sjef Teuns, the reputed child psychiatrist from the Netherlands spoke on the “Rights of  Children in the New Millennium” giving special emphasis on what kind of rights the children should enjoy in future. Ms. Teresita L. Silva, from Childhope Asia, Philippines in her presentation on "Girl Children in need of Special Protection" stressed upon the girl children's vulnerability as they are open to abuse much more than the boys. She recommended that it is necessary for any government to evaluate the situation and take up policies to give special protection to girl children and also to make the people aware of the risk factors. Mr. Achintya Bhattacharya of CLPOA, Calcutta, spoke on  “Networking – the best way to uphold the Rights of the Child” and emphasised the importance of networking saying that proper networking increases interaction, covers wider area and ensures better monitoring and implementation. Sister M. Cyril of Loreto Day School, Calcutta spoke on – “Children in Crisis” and discussed the reasons for which a child can be in crisis – such as alcoholism in parents, neglected childhood, sexual abuse and others. She felt that a child can be saved from such abuses with love and security  where the school also can play a major role. The last  speaker of the session Dr.I.C. Tewari from India  made a presentation on “Universalising Birth Registration in India”. He pointed out that a child once born has a right to be registered and has a right to a name. He felt that it is necessary to make people aware of the importance of birth registration and hoped that a time will come when all new-borns of this country will be duly registered thus ensuring  the fulfilment of one of the most basic rights  of  children.
The most  interesting items on the concluding day was the specially organised Panel Discussion on the Child’s Rights to Information by the media people. Several distinguished media personalities took part in the discussion. Two child speakers  were also present in the panel. The discussion was moderated by the well-known compere Prof. N. Vishwanathan. Most of the speakers observed that though  children have rights to Information it is very sad that they do not enjoy it in our country. This is due to the restraint under which the media in our country are to work.They also stressed the fact that care should be taken that they  are not fed with undesirable information which will be damaging to their healthy  development . Miss Sudebi Thakurata and Miss Bornila Chatterjee  two child speakers from Voices actively  took part in the debate. It was interesting to watch how the children matched the veteran media people in arguing why they would not  have access to all information that adults have. 

Plenary - V Child Empowerment In The New Millennium
Mr. Monoj  Kumar and Ms. Nalini Gangadharan made a presentation on “Child Labour Eradication — our collective social responsibility for the new millennium”. They emphasised  that the eradication of child labour is no child’s play. All institutions—government, educational, legal, police, NGOs have to work hand in hand for this end.
Mr. Sukumara, Deputy Commissioner of Hyderabad  Police spoke on the “Role of police in child labour eradication  and child protection”. In his presentation he mentioned with examples case studies on  child labour successfully handled by the police.
Ms. Indrani Sinha, Director,  Sanlaap spoke on “Migration of Children — A related issue”.  She said that the most vulnerable age of a girl is 12 years to 16-18 years when she is at a risk of  being trafficked.
Mr. Manabendra Nath Mandal, Director, SLARTC spoke on “Child Rights—Constitutional and Legal Protection in India” and described how one can take legal   aids to ensure the rights of a child and protect a vulnerable child at risk. Ms. Swaran Chaudhry from Society for Indian Children’s Welfare said that child has no hand in the choice of parents or whether he or she wants  to be born or not but  once born he or she has a right to a family and  a right to parents. 

Workshops 
Besides five Plenaries there were seven Workshops. In the workshops the major speakers were Ms. Nandi Msezane of “Global March Against Child Labour” from South Africa who  spoke on the deprivation of child workers in her country. Mr. James Connor from USA  spoke on the “Children in Crisis, the Challenge of the Millennium”. Dr. B.Sarkar from Rural Development talked on “Regrafting Street Children on Family Stem”. Ms. Annette Cockburn from South Africa  showed a documentary film on “Family Violence and Child Protection”. Ms. Amara Peeris and Ms. Nalini Liyanage of Sarvodaya Women’s Movement in Sri Lanka talked on “Children’s Voices – the Unheard to be Heard”.
Dr. V.K. Painuly from India spoke on “Mountain Children in 2000 AD”. Several child speakers from the schools of Calcutta like Master Argha Sengupta, Miss Roshni Roy Chowdhury   and others spoke on the Rights that they must have.
Ms. Ann Pestalozzi from USA emphasised the importance of “Peer Counselling for the Children in Crisis”. Ms. Subhalaxmi Nandy from Kalyani University India felt that battered children often tend to become battering parents. Ms. Inderjit Khurana of India spoke about Child Labour in Orissa and how they are exploited and trafficked. Ms. Meghna Sawant described the Childline Project which is a 24-hour helpline for children in distress. On the concluding session children from PLAN held their own programme on the Rights  and very nicely  summed up  the rights that children should enjoy. Finally they built a human pyramid on the Rights of Children. It was followed by a spontaneous  dance presentation by children where the adult  delegates  joined  them  on the  dias.  The   dance was finally over with the song “We shall overcome”  when children and adults joined hand in hand in solidarity forming a large  human ring filling up the entire auditorium with the promise for a better tomorrow. The concluding programme of the Conference was chaired by Mr. Prasanta Chatterjee, Mayor of Calcutta who also holds the title “Defender of Children”. He thanked IPER for organising such a Conference and hoped that the Conference will help people to become more sensitive to the issue of child rights and the next century will see that the children get their due rights. 

Conclusion
Finally  Mr. Roger Braden of PLAN gave a vote of thanks on behalf of the organisers and the Conference came to an end with a colourful cultural presentation. It was the end and still not  an end. It was rather the beginning, the beginning of a new century, a new hope, the beginning of an era where all the children of the world  will get the rights they deserve. A new era of “Asserting the Child Rights”. 
The item that made  the Conference really A First Ever was the unprecedented and most productive participation of children not only in the day to day proceedings but also in the determination of the final outcome of the Conference. Child participants from different schools of Calcutta accompanied by the children of PLAN International who came from India as well as  from abroad constituted an important and active section of the participants. 
They presented their views through pictorial presentation and drawings which were exhibited in the spacious Exhibition  Hall. They launched a programme on the Orientation towards Child Rights. They arranged the different Rights of the Child according to their priority as they thought fit. They projected themselves in a dual role, the Observer and the Observed. The Observer children expressed their opinion on the Observed ones who were working children, the abandoned ones and children who live on streets. They also expressed  their views on girl children and the exploitation they undergo. They prepared a draft on Children’s Agenda for taking forward Child Rights and evaluated the feedback from the proceedings of the adult Conference in a very adult-like manner.  The  most important session of  the Conference was the Children’s own Session  where they  talked about  what they thought  their rights should be.
A little girl said, “Equality is my right” and she went on to add that “Boys and girls should be treated equally”. While  little  Deshraj  from  Delhi  talked  about  his friend’s situation whose mother had run away, father was a drunkard and his grand parents did not give him food. He declared “Our right is to get food.” Next was a little boy from Andhra Pradesh who said that his parents beat him when he wanted to go to school. He felt that he had a right to education.
A little boy from Mumbai however emphasised his “Right to play”. He said that his study takes so much time that he could not play. But Rachna from Delhi was determined that her Right was to be protected from exploitation and she talked about her friend who was 17 and a sex worker. The session thus went on. Many more children came forward. Some thought their right was to shelter, some thought that education was their right while a few others thought a family was their right and so on.
Although every child had different opinion and different perspectives to look at Child  Rights, one thing was common, the depth and maturity of their thought process. Each one of them had his or her solid logic to back up what he or she was talking about. The session really confirmed the fact that adults should be more sincere and earnest in seeing that the Rights of the Children are really asserted.

Conference Recommendations ::  Some salient features
The Recommendations of the Conference were presented by the Recommendation Committee comprising Dr. Usha Nayar, Ms. Teresita L. Silva and Mr. Roger Braden on the concluding day before the delegates. Below are given some extracts from it. The full version of the Recommendations will be available as a separate booklet very soon.

Global Commitment
a) A programme is to be taken up for the promotion of awareness of the CRC with emphasis on attitudinal change at all levels, international, national and community and across all sections from the political level down to the family through collaboration of the committed NGOs and Governments  and with maximum children’s participation.
b) Materials for information, education, communication and teaching should be developed for dissemination of the CRC.
c) Producers of video films, cartoons and children’s games are to be enlisted to produce board games with CRC themes.
d) Monitoring of the CRC should be done at political, legal and community levels by all sections of the civil society  with participation of children themselves.
e) An  International Court on CRC should be set up by UN.

At the NGO Level
a) Bodies of  NGO’s should be formed at national, state and district levels.
b) NGOs themselves should take the leadership in forming such bodies involving all.

At the Regional Level
a) Children should be participants in the Committee on the CRC at national, state and regional levels.

b) A special body should be formed to give shape to the Recommendations of the Conference.
c) IPER should take lead in promoting the body.
d) The individual resource person can work with the consultancy  group of NGOs from his/her office.
e) Collective groups including international NGOs  should  provide Secretariat for  such Body.
f) PLAN International can take the initiative by supporting such aspects like budget, resource persons and others.
g) All NGOs should take initiative and be assisted by the Government.

At the Government Level :

November 20, the day the UN adopted the CRC is to be declared as the “CRC Day”.
b) At international level all UN agencies should use their resources for promoting the CRC. 
c) Implementation and monitoring of the CRC should be entrusted to NGOs with the Government and NGOs regularly reviewing the progress.
d) Government should allocate fund for child-rights-related activities and  programmes.
e) A separate child-wing should be set up under the National Human Rights Commission.
f) A high level commission should be established to investigate allegations of custodial abuse and killing of children.
g) A separate Ministry for Child Rights at the state level should be set up.
h) All laws relating to child labour and exploited children  should be covered  by the Juvenile Justice Department.
i) Education should be made a fundamental right with defaulters punishable by law.

The Recommendations are primarily armed at speedying up the implementation of the directives of the Convention at all levels and integrating the activities and programmes undertaken by different bodies working for the Rights of the Child.
Incidentally  one of the major recommendations maintains that IPER should take the charge of  setting up a special body  for seeing that the recommendations of the Conference are put into effect. In deference to  the  wishes of the delegates  IPER has accepted this recommendation and is drawing up a suitable programme to attain the objective. 

As a first step IPER would contact individuals and organisations world over who are  working for the Rights of the Child and develop with their co-operation suitable programmes for implementing the directives of the Convention. To start with IPER draws the attention of all individuals and organisations to two significant recommendations made at the Conference and proposes that immediate steps be taken to effect their implementation. They are

Recommendation One
November 20th, the day UN published the Convention on  Child Rights  be declared as the “Child Rights Day”. This recommendation is very relevant and  appropriate. It  would indeed be immensely  effective in disseminating the messages of the Convention among the  public  a  large part of which is not properly  acquainted with the content of the Convention.  This recommendation if put to effect  will act as a natural as well as a very powerful instrument in reaching out to the people of all sections and  spreading  among  them  the messages of the Convention. 

Recommendation Two
At the international level all  UN agencies  should use their resources for  promoting the  CRC. This Recommendation is also very significant and will expedite the implementation of the programmes of  the CRC in much wider areas and in more effective ways. Since the presentation of the Convention on Child Rights in 1989 UNICEF has been entrusted with the task of implementing its directives world over and for the last one decade the offices of UNICEF in different countries have been launching multifarious programmes of their own as well as helping individuals and organisations who work for the Rights of the Child with fund and expertise. The fund allotted for such programmes is also quite substantial, nearly a billion dollar every day and covering 161 countries. But in spite of its excellent decade- long track record neither the efforts nor the fund have proved adequate to meet the colossal requirements that the cause calls for. The number of children lacking protection, starving and even being killed and maimed is also mounting in a menacing stride.
It is an undisputed fact that of the human-rights-at-stake the more magnitudinous and damaging are those of children which are blatantly flouted by adults at every level and at smallest excuses. If the present recommendation is put to effect the promotional efforts for realising the directives of the Conference in real life will be considerably bolstered. 

Measures Proposed
We therefore propose to send a collective petition to Mr. Kofi  Annan,  Secretary  General,  UN  requesting   him  to see that the above two  recommendations made at the Conference  are  accepted by the UN and put to effect. We will also request all individuals and organisations who appreciate   the   merits  of   these  recommendations  to  write directly to the Secretary General, UN requesting him  to use  his gracious office to put  them into practice.