Children and Youth

The development of children and the promotion of their well-being is a principal area of cooperation identified by SAARC from its very inception. The objective of building a region-wide consensus on social action for achieving the rights of the child and the goals set for them within the framework of a survival, development and protection strategy was addressed during the three Ministerial Conferences on Children held in Delhi (1986), Colombo (1992) and Rawalpindi (1996).
Following a decision of the Second Summit (Bangalore, November 1986) that the survival, protection and development of children be given the highest priority, annual reviews on the Situation of Children in SAARC countries were initiated in 1993. The reviews have been an important source of ascertaining the status of children and monitoring progress thereon.

The Ninth Summit (Male’, May 1997) gave heightened impetus to tackling the important issues relating to women and children. It resolved to implement appropriate policies at the national level to achieve the targets and objectives set out in the Rawalpindi Declaration adopted by the Third Ministerial Conference on Children (August, 1996).

Pursuant to the decision of the Ninth Summit, the SAARC Convention on Regional Arrangements on the Promotion of Child Welfare in South Asia was signed in January 2002 during the Eleventh Summit in Kathmandu. The Convention envisages to facilitate the development of full potential of the South Asian child.

Welcoming the signing of the Convention, at their Eleventh Summit (Kathmandu, January 2002), the Leaders reaffirmed their conviction that children in South Asia deserve urgent and focused attention to achieve the overall progress of the countries in the region. That Summit, therefore, directed the Council of Ministers to take necessary measures to ensure the enjoyment by girl child of her inherent potential and to take concrete steps to give priority to investing in children as an effective means for poverty reduction in the long run.

The Eleventh Summit also agreed to mobilize necessary resources and to intensify broad-based actions to achieve a set of priority goals in improving the status of children, such as polio eradication; protection of children from mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS; and quality basic education to children.

The Year 1990 was observed as the SAARC Year of the Girl Child and the decade of 1991-2000 was designated as the SAARC Decade of the Girl Child. The decade from 2001 to 2010 is being observed as the SAARC Decade of the Rights of the Child. A number of activities were undertaken in Member States in observance of the Decade. A mid-term review of the progress in realizing the objectives of the Decade would be under taken in 2006, in collaboration with UNICEF.

In the areas of child development and health, SAARC has been closely cooperating with UNICEF following the signing of an MoU in December 1993. The MoU envisages cooperation in implementing the relevant SAARC decisions relating to children through an annual agenda, which includes, among others, preparation of joint studies, exchange of documentation and monitoring of implementation of activities agreed to by the two organizations. Jointly SAARC and UNICEF have developed a Report on the “State of the SAARC Child 2005”, which will be launched in 2006.

Issues related to Youth in the region have also been given due priority. Ministerial Conference on Youth in South Asia was held in Maldives in May 1994 to address the problem of the youth and focus on the broad theme of youth and development. Another SAARC Youth Conference would be held in India in 2006, to look at the youth related problems in South Asia.

The Year 1994 was designated as the “SAARC Year of Youth”. In 1995, the SAARC Youth Resolution was adopted to advance the overall development of Youth in the region. SAARC Youth Award Scheme was instituted in 1996 to provide recognition to extraordinary young talents.

Under the SAARC Social Charter, the Member States agreed to establish the Youth Volunteers Programme, under which volunteers from one country would be able to work in other countries in the social fields.