THE IMPACT of HIV/AIDS and globalisation on the lives of children in Latin America and the Caribbean will be two of the main issues highlighted at the 5th Ministerial Meeting on Children and Social Policy in the Americas, to be held at the Jamaica Conference Centre. It will take place between Monday and Friday of next week.
Over 600 delegates from 34 countries are expected to participate, among them Ministers, First Ladies, United Nations officials and celebrities such as the United Nations Children's Fund's Special Envoy, Harry Belafonte. Mr. Belafonte is to highlight the dramatic increase of HIV/AIDS in the region's child population and meet with musicians to enlist their talent in the fight against HIV/AIDS in children.
For the first time also, non-Governmental organisations (NGOs) and 150 children from local and overseas institutions will be included as official delegates and will make reports to the conference. This is in addition to the 220 members of the Venezuela Youth Orchestra to perform at the Little Theatre in Kingston.
"There is no precedence for a meeting like this and we are hoping NGOs and Government meeting on the same ground can find a level place in which they are both looking out for children," Jamaica's Special Envoy for Children, Ambassador Marjorie told reporters during yesterday's media briefing at the Terra Nova Hotel in St. Andrew.
The conference, which is the last being held in this region before a special session of the United Nations in 2001, will be divided into two parts. The first involves six workshops over three days, which are to be held simultaneously. The second is a ministerial meeting where Ministers of Government will discuss the issues and arrive at what is to be called a Kingston Consensus.
"Two main areas are expected to come from the Kingston meeting and from the final New York world meeting. One is the lessons we have learnt as countries which are looking at the children of the world and, two, what is the future agenda, where do we go from here," she said.
Ambassador Taylor expressed the hope that the consensus would influence deliberations to be made at next year's special session of the United Nations, where children-related issues such as child protection and rights, health and education as well as child labour and sexual exploitation, would again take centre stage.
"We are hoping that whatever comes out of this meeting in Kingston and whatever comes out of the Kingston Consensus will be a part of what will end up as final document when the special session is held in 2001," she said.
The conference has also attracted the attention of regional and international media, among them the Caribbean Media Corporation, which is to broadcast sessions to the rest of the Caribbean.
