The International Catholic Child Bureau (Bureau Internationale Catholique de l'Enfance, Bice) is planning to launch an Appeal for Childhood in Geneva in June 2009, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It aims to offer the opportunity to re-mobilize around the CRC and its founding values for the dignity and the rights of the child.
Bice has established four regional expert groups in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe and the CIS, including representatives of BICE member organizations, their partners as well as experts and other field actors close to the organization.
These four groups brought together about fifty people. After some working seminars, exchanges and consultations, each regional expert group wrote a position paper on the status of childhood in its region. These studies were presented on 4 June 2008 in Paris during a meeting attended by more than 200 people.
Bice would like to associate the greatest possible number of organizations and concerned actors interested in child-related issues to the appeal drafting process and would, therefore, welcome receiving comments and remarks on the position papers, no later than August 31st 2008. Please send comments to positionpaperbice@bice.org
The position papers in English, French and Spanish are dowloadble form the bice website.