Seminar on "Child Protection: Human Rights Approach"

As part of the commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the Advisory Council on Human Rights (CCHR) held in cooperation with the "Dima Adros" project, a seminar on child protection: human rights approach.

The seminar was attended by CCDH members, government departments, national institutions, associations, professors and researchers. Participants stressed the need to incorporate the human rights approach in public policies and legislations aiming to improve the rights of the child, including the rights to health and education.

They also emphasized the need for collective thinking to take a joint action to integrate the child rights approach in the various protection and development programs.

Also, light was shed on the importance of harmonizing national laws with international conventions and the need to engage in a societal debate on the occasion of 20th anniversary of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Speaking at the opening of the seminar, the CCDH President, Mr. Ahmed Herzenni, said that childhood questions have unanimous support at the national and institutional levels, which made it possible to achieve some gains in the relevant fields, including the issuance of the Family Code, which includes 40 articles on children. He highlighted that in order to promote some rights, the public policies should incorporate the human rights approach concerning issues related to childhood, especially the socio-economic, cultural and environmental issues.

Mr. Herzenni said that bearing in mind the importance of children's issues, the CCDH launched a project on human rights education in coordination with various government departments and civil society activists, which was the Citizen Platform for the Promotion of the human rights culture.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Social Development, Family and Solidarity, Ms. Nouzha Skalli, said that the human rights approach puts to the test the contribution and the mobilization of the state with all its components, including local communes, as well as civil society to ensure for children a healthy life, good education and protection against all forms of violence and exploitation.

Ms. Skalli also stressed the main activities undertaken in this direction, including the establishment of regional social services which will have covered the sixteen regions of Morocco by 2012, in order to ensure an effective, standard and quality action in favor of children in fragile situation.

The manager of the “Dima Adros” project, Mr. Lahcen Haddad, underlined the importance of coordination between different stakeholders to improve the rights of the child in Morocco.

He said that the “Dima Adros” project aims, inter alia, to combat child labor and fight against all forms of economic, sexual and moral exploitation of children.