OBJECTIVE

OBJECTIVE

The goal of the RELAF Seminar is to strengthen the aforementioned deinstitutionalisation processes and to boost similar ones in the other countries of the region. To achieve this, it is necessary to generate a regional synergy and to offer an opportunity to discuss and exchange on the progresses accomplished. Therefore, the Seminar aims at:

• Promoting exchanges regarding the progresses made and lessons learnt.
• Identifying the challenges to be overcome.
• Obtaining the necessary engagements and commitments to guarantee the right of our region’s children to family and community life.
• Guiding and influencing the deinstitutionalisation processes launched in the framework of the reform of the systems that intend to protect the rights of children deprived of parental care.

The RELAF Seminar will be a part of the advocacy strategy that RELAF, along with its global partners, has prepared in order to encourage the application of the UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children, 10 years after their approval by the UN General Assembly.

The Seminar will also be a place to carry out bilateral and multilateral meetings between countries and organisations that face common issues, such as the case of migrant children.

SEMINAR

Since its creation, RELAF has carried out five International Seminars: Mar del Plata, Argentina (2007); Buenos Aires, Argentina (2009); Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil (2010); Guanajuato, Mexico (2013); and Panama City, Panama (2016).

These important events were attended by different audiences that work in the field of childhood: technicians from diverse branches of science; decision-makers with all kinds of responsibility in the implementation of public policies, both from the government and the civil society; regional and global NGOs; international cooperation agencies; researchers; academicians; and children and adolescents. Over 2000 people have attended the country, coming from 26 countries: Argentina, Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, USA, Guatemala, Haiti, the Netherlands, the UK, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Romania, Uruguay and Venezuela.

For all agents, professionals and researchers that work on child-related issues, and especially for those who intend to protect the rights of children deprived of parental care, these Seminars are great opportunities to update their information and get to know the realities of the region and the change processes that are being generated. It is important to highlight the participation in these Seminars of the maximum authorities on childhood of the region’s countries, who have made presentations, integrated intersectorial delegations, and shared experiences, advances and challenges in the adaptation of alternative care for children separated from their families. Brazilian president Luiz Inácio ‘Lula’ Da Silva opened the 2010 RELAF Seminar accompanied by 8 of his ministers. There, he gave a speech in which he prioritised the guarantee of the right to family and community life over other aspects of society and politics. His considerations, as well as interviews with members of the RELAF network, were broadcast in occasion of the Seminar in many local and regional media and in specialised media all over the world.

The five RELAF Seminars have proved to be relevant spheres for trainings, exchanges and advocacy, and have turned into great opportunities to achieve consensus to prepare regional roadmaps for the deinstitutionalisation of children and to guarantee their right to live in a family and community.

The Instituto Santos Brasil will be the local organiser of the event that will take place in Salvador in April. We expect to have the attendance of approximately 1000 people: a high proportion of Brazilians, along with intersectorial delegations from other countries of the region and from the rest of the world.