Memo: UNICEF Workshop, May 2nd
Members Present: Zhang Wenjuan (presenter), Kevin Keller
On May 2nd, 2013, as a specially invited expert, Deputy Director of the Beijing Children’s Legal Aid and Research Center Zhang Wenjuan participated in the UNICEF Mid-Term Review workshop. Other participants at the event included representatives from the Standing Committee of National People’s Congress, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Civil Affairs, Ministry of Development and Reform Commission, the All China Women’s Federation and a wide range of public and private organizations. Over the course of the day she provided her input on current challenges faced by child protection advocates and helped identify strategies for achieving progress at a systemic level.
The workshop was divided into a morning and afternoon session. In the morning, participants were given a holistic view of the current situation of child protection in China. In the afternoon, leaders from UNICEF explained the obstacles that their organization had encountered and sought expert guidance from conference attendees. The event concluded with a discussion of new metrics that may be adopted by UNICEF to assess their own progress.
Attorney Zhang played an active part in many of the discussions. She helped elaborate on the various legal achievements from the past few years in the area of child protection, and at another point she explained that current weaknesses in China’s child protection system stemmed from flaws in legislation, structures, and services. She described, in many cases, the current legislations and policies exposed that the policymakers and legislators failed to take into account the perspective of the child, or how laws and regulations would actually affect children.
The final session of the UNICEF workshop will take place next week. In the interim, Attorney Zhang will prepare proposals for how UNICEF can address the challenges it faces. The first day of the conference successfully encouraged a lively exchange of ideas, and Attorney Zhang looks forward to meeting with the other representatives soon to discuss new strategies for improving the lives of children in China.
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