A Message from Children and Young People at the Yokohama Congress

By Mioi Nakayama

To whom it may concern,

Hello. My name is Mioi, I am 24 years old, and I work with the Japan International Center for the Rights of the Child. I would like to contribute an article to On the Record for Children.

I was a youth delegate at the 2nd World Congress of the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children held in Yokohama, Japan. We, its delegates, would like to get the message out to the world. The final appeal we made has no power to impact society right now, so we request, first of all, that all children and young people know this important appeal.

Overview of ChildrenŒs and Young PeopleŒs Participation at the Yokohama Congress

* Approximately 100 children and young people drafted a keynote speech, a presentation for panel 3 and the final appeal. See http://www.mofa.go.jp
* To solve CSEC problems, child participation is a must-action as Yokohama Congress shows
* It is a legitimate right for children to participate in places to discuss matters concerning chidlren and to be involved from an early stage. Child participation must be promoted and practiced as often as possible. We consider that in order to create a world fit for children, we need to promote child participation further.
* Children and young people can set up a worldwide network and show their appeal not only by words, but also by various ways such as drama and songs
Lessons learned from the Yokohama Congress
* Recognition of the gap concerning child participation. Discussions have not progressed because of this reason
* Knowledge and experience gaps
* Gap in understanding vocabularies and the details of discussions
* Language barriers- minorities are left behind
* A better understanding of the role of Œchildren‚,Œyoung people‚, and Œadults‚
* Young people can be peer facilitators for children, or they can be good advisers for children. There were many opinions on the role of young people
We request world leaders to read our final appeal and pass it on to their children, sex exploiters and those who are victims of CSEC. We request to raise the level of this appeal so that it will have impact on international society.

Japan International Center for the Rights of the Child - Mioi Nakayama on behalf of other delegates from my NGO: Namiko Watanabe, Chiako Nishimura, Shinichi Sato.

Children's Rights