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Opening speech to the
second conference of Cf
By Soraya Shahabi
I would like to welcome all. Special welcome and thanks to
the speakers for being here today. I am honoured to open the
second conference of Children First. Being a part of any
effort to make a difference in the life and the situation of
even one child, is honourable and I am proud to be a part of
this effort.
Before announcing the programme and the agenda of our
conference, I would like to talk about a brief history of
our conferences. Last September, we held our first
conference.
What brought up the idea of running annual conferences, was
to honour a great person. Last summer we lost Mansour
Hekmat, the initiator of children first. He passed away last
summer and we found the annual conferences on children
rights could be a way to honour this great thinker and
activist of children’s rights and human rights all over the
world. Since then, children first added the annual
conferences to it’s agenda and activities.
The theme of the last conference was the Freedom and future
of children. You can find more details about it by visiting
our web site.
www.childrenfirstinternational.org Today we are holding
the second conference and I would like to explain about our
conferences and the missions of Children First.
Our organization and conferences are open to all activists,
NGOs, organizations and whoever wants to act for children’s
rights. We support all activities and campaigns run by
other NGOs that are working for Children’s rights and human
rights. We support all who care about the faith of children
in our society. They can become members and/or activists of
CF. But we have our own mission to do. Which I do
believe is very progressive, very child focused and very
minimalist. Our vision says:
“The way a society treats its children is the most telling
testimony to its humanity and liberty. Children must come
first, above any national, economic, political, ideological,
religious and cultural considerations and interests.”We
do not recognise any geographical, political, national,
ethnic, cultural and religious barriers and boundaries to
our defence of the rights of children. We see children’s
rights as universal.”
This statement and framework allows us to focus on
children’s needs and their direct interest. We do not
compromise and sacrifice the need and the rights of any
child in any circumstance. There is no excuse to tolerate
child abuse in any form either from the state or the family.
This is why we call ourselves Children First. Children must
come first, above any national, economic, political,
ideological, religious and cultural considerations
Welcome to our conference
The
present conference is about the welfare and security of
children. The voice of street children, the voice of
struggle to end child poverty, the voice of protecting
children from abuse by religion!
This
conference highlights the voice of war-stricken children in
Iraq! It is a gathering of activists who are fighting to
defend children’s rights and bring happiness, security and a
better life for all children of the world.
During
the conference we shall have Speeches, photo exhibition,
film, slide show, play, music and a solidarity evening with
the children in Iraq. The conference is held in 5 languages;
English, Swedish, Farsi, Kurdish and Arabic.
The language for the first day will be in English and
Swedish. Tomorrow we are going to hear Farsi and Kurdish
speakers’ speech. We shall also have time during the 2 days
of the conference to hear YOUR comments, views and
discussions.
In addition, tonight we will have a solidarity evening with
the children in Iraq, We hope we can raise funds for
children in Iraq. Please DO come tonight. I’m sure you will
have a nice time. Remember it is for a very urgent and good
cause.
Once again I would like to thank you all for coming.
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