ChildPact, the Regional Coalition for Child Protection in the Wider Black Sea Area, hosted a special panel at the Black Sea NGO Forum (Bucharest, 4-6 September 2013).
Government officials from six ChildPact countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania and Serbia) and civil society representatives discussed ChildPact’s proposal to build a Regional Cooperation Mechanism for Child Protection in the Black Sea area and agreed that regional cooperation is an important factor in achieving the next level of progress in child protection reforms.
The event’s participants focus in their statement that millions of children in the wider Black Sea area are in situations of hunger, violence, labour, trafficking, or institutionalisation. Governments in the region have worked to build systems of care and protection for the most vulnerable children, but more must be done. Because countries in the Black Sea area have experienced similar challenges and share similar legacies, they can make great strides by working in cooperation. Progressive and innovative policy and programming tools are needed to move forward the reform efforts.
The National Network for Children was host and one of the 8 network organizations for children who signed the founding agreement of the child protection regional coalition ChildPact. The Union aims to fight for children rights in the region, to strengthen the non-government organizations active participation in children policies and to enhance the cooperation with public authorities on local and European level.
