Israel als Schurkenstaat 288

On behalf of Defence for Children International - Palestine Section, I am truly honored to welcome you to Bethlehem in November this year for our international conference, "Protective Environment - Active Participation." In this conference a remarkable opportunity lies before us. As child rights experts and activists from all over the world, we will share the space and time necessary to share our experiences, our backgrounds, our contexts, and our concerns; we will discuss our obstacles, our priorities, our visions, and our frustrations; through dialogue and debate, we will examine our methodologies and strengthen the means of cooperation between us, such that we create new networks of support that will help us work, individually and together, toward greater child protection and participation in our societies and in our world.

I would like to emphasize that one of the central concerns of this conference is the importance of child *participation,* not just protection. As we gather to discuss our own contexts around the globe, and our own work within those contexts, we will also discuss ways in which the problems facing children in society are themselves social problems. In this sense, society comes to define children and their social roles in particular ways; children, meanwhile, come to conceive of their own roles - both capabilities and limitations - accordingly.

I feel that this conference will provide us with a unique opportunity to address ways not only of creating fairer systems for enforcing child rights, but also ways of empowering children themselves to defend, enact, and enjoy those rights. What we seek, then, is nothing less than children's full participation in their own communities - such that society views them not only as the bearers of rights, but as people fully capable of understanding their own interests, expressing themselves, and working alongside adults in shared struggles for justice.

At DCI, our work has remained predicated on the establishment and enforcement of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as other crucial international child right's laws. Yet our goals have always been focused on principles and systems that respond to regional, national, and local priorities, in addition to international ones. The global nature of this conference, then - the presence of colleagues from all over the world - promises to be substantive and enriching. We can learn not only from the goals we share, but also from the particular realities we inhabit, confront, and experience - and from the realities we seek to change through our work in defense of children's rights.

I look forward to your presence and participation in the conference. And on behalf of Defence for Children International - Palestine Section, I thank you for both. Welcome!

Rifat Odeh Kassis
General Director
DCI - Palestine Section

Link to the conference.

Please Note: Important Conference Registration Information
 In order to successfully register for the Children's International Conference ''Protective Environment - Active Participation'' you must receive a confirmation email from DCI-Palestine.  If you do not receive a confirmation email, please contact the conference coordinator.