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Ibero-American Panama Summit Focuses on Child Poverty
Leaders from Ibero-American countries, in a summit in Panama, on Saturday called for social and economic measures to address regional child poverty and other problems facing children and teenagers in the region.
At the two-day 10th Ibero-American summit which opened on Friday evening, leaders from Spain, Portugal and 21 Latin American countries discussed a broad range of social and economic issues and drafted a declaration with child poverty as its centerpiece.
In the declaration, the Ibero-American leaders examined the situation of the minors across the region and stressed that they are the future of the region.
Some estimates show that up to two-thirds of the 200 million children and teenagers in the Latin American countries now live in poverty. Many are victims of violence, sexual abuse and child labor.
According to the draft document, the Ibero-American community suffers a persistent high degree of poverty including extreme poverty, mixed with other problems such as insufficient health care and education facilities, growing intra-family insecurity and lack of housing for families.
These problems are compounded by rampant drug trafficking, violence and premature entry into the labor market, said the declaration.
Among all affected by the social and economic problems, the Ibero-American leaders believe, youngsters suffer the most.
The declaration said it is of strategic importance to adopt " responsible and congruous" economic and social policies in favor of children and teenagers with an aim to achieve justice and social equity.
To achieve this goal, problems that perplex the youngsters such as high maternal mortality, child labor and sexual exploitation should be addressed, said the declaration, adding that social expenditure measures and family-oriented national policies would help to solve the problems faced by youngsters.
In his address to the summit, Costa Rican President Miguel Angel Rodriguez said there is a "need of families giving love to children, encouraging them to be creative, stimulating their sense of excellence and teaching them to be supportive to other people, based on work and peace."
On the issue of abandoning children by their parents, he said it is in the root cause of poverty and reflects problems in cultural development of children.
Colombian President Andres Pastrana called for taking "real joint actions" instead of "mere words" so as to offer minors in the region "opportunities and a good quality of life."
He also called for national and international actions to prevent minors from getting involved directly or indirectly in armed conflicts, and proposed to raise the minimum official recruitment age from 15 to 18 years of age.
The leaders' discussions covered a wide range of minors-related topics including enhancing their living quality, combating kidnapping and better-identifying the different educational needs of minors.
The summit is scheduled to close on Saturday afternoon after the signing of the final declaration.
The Ibero-American Summit is an official meeting of Spanish/ Portuguese-speaking Latin American countries, Spain and Portugal. It was first held in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1991. Peru will host the 11th gathering in the year 2001.
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