RESOLUTION

5th International Conference“Safe Belarus and CIS Region for Children”

5th International Conference “Safe Belarus and CIS Region for Children” took place in Minsk April 24, 2014.

More than 200 people took part in the Conference. The participants represented legislative and executive authorities, state administration, non-governmental organizations, higher education establishments. There were experts from Belarus, Great Britain, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Russia, USA, diplomatic representatives accredited in Belarus, intergovernmental organizations - Representative Office of UNICEF, Executive Secretariat of the Commonwealth of Independent States, and mass media.

In the course of the Conference the participants:shared experience of development of different national child

protection systems, of realization of various policies and programs on child protection in Belarus, countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States and other countries;

enlarged their knowledge on the Child Protection System in general, and in particular – on the elements of the system as well as international and national instruments for protection children from violence;

discussed the realization of the National Plan of Action for Improving Children’s Life and Protection of their Rights for the years 2012-2016 (Republic of Belarus), in particular development of child friendly investigation, cooperation of the State and civil society in child protection area and also the results of monitoring of Implementation of Article 19 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and related articles ratified by the Republic of Belarus;

In the course of discussion the participants notified:the Republic of Belarus and countries of the Commonwealth of

Independent States are creating Child Protection Systems that have perspectives of further development taking into account imperatives of our time and considering possibilities to adequately response the current challenges;

the problem of child abuse remains to be of high importance even with all the efforts made by states, professionals and civil society all round the world;

forms of child abuse transform and often multiply due to development of new media and the Internet;

there have been registered more cases of missing and exploited children. Threats that children have to face today become even more acute and large-scale that is common in all the countries;

trafficking in children, commercial sexual exploitation and child pornography arouse special concern as they are the most serious violations of child rights and freedoms;

increase in detection rate of crimes against sexual integrity and sexual freedom connected with extensive use of new child friendly technologies of reporting and investigation is a positive tendency, however spread of sexual abuse against children gives rise to concern as high latency of such crimes is preserved;

professional community of CIS countries represented at the Conference becomes more and more willing to tackle the problem of child abuse though societies of different countries in general are not ready enough to discuss this problem openly;

professional community of CIS countries represented at the Conference does not possess enough resources to prevent child abuse and to help child victims, in particular they have not enough developed infrastructure and modern technologies and legislative base is poor;

cooperation of governmental bodies and non-governmental organizations has remarkable achievements and perspectives for further development in the Republic of Belarus in particular, that is a great step on the way to improving national instruments of protection of rights of child victims and witnesses;

participation of NGOs in interagency cooperation in child protection has positive results in the Republic of Belarus. This cooperation is realized according to Article 67 of the National Plan of Action for Improving Children’s Life and Protection of their Rights for the years 2012-2016 where it is stated that non-governmental organizations can be involved into the implementation of the Plan upon their consent.

Followed by the above mentioned,guided by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the National

Policy and legislation of the Republic of Belarus, agreements between country members of the Commonwealth of Independent States and other international conventions and agreements that provide comprehensive protection of children from humiliation, exploitation and violence;

supporting the efforts of the State, professional community, civil society of the Republic of Belarus and other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States that address the realization of the right of the child to live in free from all forms of violence, safe environment – family, school, community and society in general;

recognizing remarkable achievements and constant progress made by countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States in the area of child protection;

acknowledging successful implementation of the National Plan of Action for Improving Children’s Life and Protection of their Rights for the years 2012-2016 in the Republic of Belarus and also Plans of Actions of

the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States represented at the Conference;

considering the necessity to reinforce interagency and cross sectoral cooperation in order to implement articles of National Plans of Action related to protection of children from abuse and neglect and other forms of violence in the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States,

The participants of the Conference determined: to inform governmental authorities and society of the countries of the

Commonwealth of Independent States represented at the Conference and the Interparliamentary Assembly and the Executive Secretariat of the Commonwealth of Independent States about the results of the Conference and the adopted Resolution;

to recommend the parties concerned to reinforce the actions taken to eradicate all forms of violence against children, to follow the universal ban of physical punishments and to join the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure that came into force April 14, 2014;

to recommend the government authorities to continue a successful practice and to include representatives of NGOs into joint advisory and consultative bodies in order to consider their opinions and to apply resources of NGOs in the area of child protection;

to propose the government authorities and representatives of public sector to include issues of child abuse into the agendas of the Commission on Juvenile Affairs, coordinating Councils for child rights protection and other coordinating bodies as part of the approach of inter sectoral cooperation;

to propose the government authorities and representatives of public sector to continue successful practice and organize annual Conferences “Safe Belarus and CIS Region for Children”, to discuss with the parties concerned a possibility to organize the Conference under the auspices of the relevant government commissions of the CIS countries and executive bodies of the Commonwealth, and to take joint efforts for organizing and conducting of seminars and other educative events for specialists of different fields of the CIS Region with the aim of sharing experience and implementation of the best practices;

to enhance international partnership between the International NGO “Ponimanie” and the leading non-governmental organizations of the Commonwealth of Independent States and international networks ISPCAN, Child Helpline International, Child Rights Connect, Global Missing Children Networking, CRIN, other key regional and international partners in order to improve national, regional (East Europe-Central Asia/CIS) and international child protection systems;

to make joint efforts for promoting the United Child Protection Model in the countries of the Region and globally, continue activities for

constructing of the Regional Education and Service Center for Protection of Children from Abuse and Neglect under the aegis of the INGO “Ponimanie” in Minsk;

to propose the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus to take additional measures to implement Article 67 of the National Plan of Action for Improving Children’s Life and Protection of their Rights for the years 2012-2016 through the Plan of Cooperation between the INGO “Ponimanie” and educational establishments in order to make joint efforts to prevent child abuse and provide help and support to child victims;

to propose the government authorities and representatives of public sector to continue taking coordinated efforts for allocation and effective use of resources (financial, organizational, methodological, etc) aimed at developing a comprehensive Instruction System for specialists in the area of child abuse prevention, investigation, rehabilitation and treatment of child victims;

to propose the government authorities and representatives of public sector to further discuss means for expanding the network of child friendly interviewing rooms and ways of advancing legal confirmation of the norms of their functioning;

to propose the government authorities and representatives of public sector to take efforts for further development of the System of Complex Rehabilitation of child victims of abuse;

to propose the government authorities and representatives of public sector to continue designing and promoting in the mass media and the Internet a quality social advertizing in the area of Child Protection – first of all, promoting the National Child Helpline 8-801-100-16-11 and other child friendly services in order to make them known and available for all the children, and to increase the public awareness about the Child Helpline 8-801-100-16-11, to continue taking efforts to make the Child Helpline a 3 or 4-figure number;

to continue establishing detailed coordination of actions between Militia Duty Services, social and pedagogical centers and the Child Helpline Belarus aimed at providing well-organized response to children’s calls to the Child Helpline;

to propose the Ministry of Healthcare of the Republic of Belarus to make the Child Helpline fully funded by the government commencing on the 1st of July 2014 in connection with the end of the pilot project in the framework of which the Helpline was created;

to continue taking special care of cases of child abuse in foster homes and orphanages, in family-type children's home and substitute families, and to call upon the parties concerned to discuss possible ways of solving this problem;

to continue a successful practice and promote the policies (Codes of Rules) on child protection from violence in each and every child

establishment and any agency (organization) that someway deals with children;

to enhance the work, enlarge interaction and capacities of the Center for Missing and Exploited Children of the INGO “Ponimanie” through involving additional cross sectoral and international resources.

The participants of the Conference express their confidence that extending the practice of making common efforts by all the actors of the society with the aim to protect children will facilitate the development of effective child protection and support systems in the Region of East Europe-Central Asia/Commonwealth of Independent States that will assure mental and physical health and realization of the potential of each child.

That will allow us to defeat violence against children, to successfully built and develop Belarus and Countries of the Commonwealth fit and safe for their young citizens.

April 24, 2014 Minsk, Republic of Belarus