World Day for Prevention of Child Abuse commemorated
01-12-2016
The National Council for Family Affairs (NCFA) joined the rest of the world in marking the World Day for Prevention of Child Abuse as part of its efforts in safeguarding the Jordanian family, the core of the Jordanian community.
Through its diversified family-directed programs, NCFA has always stressed the importance of the phase of childhood in the life of the individual. Moreover, in line with its concern with the role of the media in raising awareness on childhood, a regional workshop was recently conducted in NCFA for media persons tilted "Towards a child-friendly media". One of the main outcomes of the workshop was putting effect to and reviewing national laws pertaining to childhood to be aligned with international standards on child rights as contained in international conventions and agreements on child right and other supportive laws to serve the best interests of the child. The workshop also stressed the importance of formulating and agreeing on a unified media policy towards child rights issues according to a rights-oriented developmental approach giving this matter utmost priority on the agenda of Arab media. Moreover, workshop outcomes also included the need to organize more workshops, panel discussion and training courses for media persons at the national and regional levels to promote a culture of child rights in direct implementation of the recommendations of the Committee on Childhood at the League of Arab States.
The workshop also called for streamlining child rights and protection issues into the public curricula and the syllabuses of media colleges and institutes and the establishment of specialized child media departments in universities. Furthermore, it highlighted the importance of paying more attention to media education among children, their families and all persons of relevance to the upbringing for the child so as to enable them to deal with all forms of media, especially electronic media, consciously in manner that feeds into a sound upbringing of the child away from all its negative impacts. The workshop has also encouraged the participation of children in preparing and broadcasting media programs and other issues of relevance to them which will reflect the principles of sharing, dialogue and freedom of speech and will enhance their role in public life.
NCFA is currently working with UNICEF on the preparation of an analysis report on the situation of children in 2016 which will serve as a database that can contribute to the formulation of childhood-related policies and the evaluation of the status of children in different sectors. The report is to be prepared periodically with the participation of relevant entities.
November 19th,2016
