austraLasia # 132

APPEAL TO GOVERNMENTS FOR NEW STREET KIDS POLICIES

International conference held by Salesians in Rome

by Tony Bailey

ROME:December 20th -– An appeal from the Salesians to national and

international institutions for new social policies and help with prevention

concluded the international conference on street children in Rome.

For five days, religious and lay people operating in 90 structures of 40

countries engaged in fighting the difficult phenomenon of street kids or

meninhos de rua or ghetto bastards or ragazzi di strada as they are called

in different areas of the world.

The last day of the meeting concluded at the mother house of the Salesians

with the speech by the Rector Major Don Juan Edmundo Vecchi.

In the 6 points which make up the appeal in particular strongly calls for

the application by all the States of the 1989 International Convention of

Children’s Rights, greater investments for adequate policies in the

social,health, educational, and work areas, as well the participation of the

operators in establishment of intervention policies as concerns children.

The conference also asked for "a decisive and constant commitment for the

fight against

the exploitation of minors in every aspect (in particular the exploitation

of work and sexual exploitation) and for the establishment of an economic

and social policy which offers new opportunities for child labor".

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