UNITED ARAB EMIRATES World religions meet in Abu Dhabi for children’s rights

Coinciding with the UN World Children’s Day, November 20 marks the Day of Prayer and Action for Children, an initiative that was born in Japan to harness the potential of religious communities to protect the well-being of the most vulnerable. small. In its sixth year, religious leaders, intergovernmental representatives and NGOs gathered in the United Arab Emirates to organize concrete actions against violations of the rights enshrined in the United Nations Convention.

Abu Dhabi () – The 900 participants from 67 countries representing the world’s great religions – Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism – met this week in Abu Dhabi to reflect on the role of religious communities in ensuring a safe, protected and sustainable future for children around the planet, in an increasingly difficult global context.

“The recent rise in threats to the well-being of children, such as increased violence and weakened security, challenges our religious communities,” Kul Gautam, president of the Global Network of Religions for Children, told participants. Children (GNRC). “These are challenges that no country or religion can solve alone,” he added.

The GNRC is a reality that was born at the initiative of Arrigatou International, whose founder, the Buddhist leader Rev. Takayasu Miyamoto, was convinced of the urgent need to prioritize the rights of children in the commitment to peace. In the ’90s he began to explore the different environments where children lived around the world and immediately identified the potential of taking advantage of the resources of religious communities as a priority channel to access child care and protection systems in the world. risk.

“At that time I worked in the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue and accompanied them in their work based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child,” says Bishop Felix Machado, Archbishop of Nashik, India, founding member of the Council. GNRC Advisory. “Over time, a group of leaders came together around the fact that the issue of child exploitation is a transversal and transnational phenomenon. Although we did not want to replace institutional actors, we thought that the first thing religious communities could do was pray and act at the local level in prevention, and at the international strategic level, establishing a Day of Prayer and Action for Children, coinciding with United Nations Day and the anniversary of the Convention.”

“Thanks to our global presence – continues Bishop Machado – we knew that we could and should do more for children in crisis situations around the world, whether due to abuse, abandonment, war, poverty or discrimination. And in this VI Forum four clear points have emerged: firstly, we must always continue moving forward together with children, we work with and for them. That is why the forum was preceded by three days of meetings with children’s delegates, so that they have an active and participatory voice. Secondly, we must evaluate the current global situation of children and then proceed concretely, with fewer words and more actions. Third, despite widespread pessimism, we have the joy of hope that children give us and that strengthens our courage as leaders to do what is necessary, building a mutual and intergenerational respect that is quite unique.”

Finally, the Indian prelate concludes, “as a Catholic I am witness to the cascading effect of the style of Pope Francis (who precisely today – during the general audience on Wednesday – announced that on February 3, within the framework of the Jubilee, it will be celebrated in the Vatican a World Meeting for the Rights of the Child ndr.) From all the delegations, in our religious diversity, the request arises to accompany children and not impose our ideas on them. Furthermore, the theme of compassion that shapes our actions. and our commitment to vulnerable children: we must work as religions cohesively and collaboratively to promote the well-being of children as brothers and sisters in a common home beyond our religious differences.”