- ATD Fourth World

Throughout 2009, as part of the Tapori initiative (see www.tapori.org), children have been meeting in their neighbourhoods, their towns and at national and regional gatherings across the world. They have shared experiences and proposals to create links and build a better world around them.

Communicating through messages and dazibaos, they share their experiences around the world in their daily battle to ensure that children’s rights and their family ties are respected, despite the pressures of poverty. These adults have also shared experiences during the year at local meetings of the Fourth World People’s Universities.

On 8th-9th December, just a few days after the 20th anniversary of the Children’s Rights Convention and on the eve of the International Day of Human Rights, forty children and adults chosen by others as their delegates will assemble at the UN in Geneva. They come from Bolivia, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, France, Haiti, Ireland, Philippines, Poland, the Republic of Mauritius, Switzerland, and the United States. Despite their diversity of experiences, they share a common history in refusing to accept extreme poverty as a fact of life. »

• Tuesday 8th December: Dialogue with the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Kyung-wha Kang, to present her with an aide-mémoire of proposals for action for the United Nations

• Tuesday 8th December at 17h30: the president of the Human Rights Commission, S.E. Alex van Meeuwen (Belgium) will inaugurate an exhibition of dazibaos showing the gestures children make to create solidarity with children living in extreme poverty.

• Wednesday 9th December: delegates will take part in a dialogue with representatives of Member States, presided over by the Pemanent Mission of the Philippines (Palais des Nations).