We, participants of the Child Friendly Cities meeting held at Qiball in Chiba City, Japan on the 23 April 2009 and members of the Child Friendly Asia Pacific Network call upon our governments, private sector, and civil society to assist us in:
Acknowledging all children under the age of 18 years old, without discrimination, have all the rights contained within the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child of which our country is a signatory;
Appreciating that childhood is a unique and important stage of life that has long lasting effects and the best interests of the child should be central to all actions concerning children. A child friendly city is committed to the fullest implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child;
Recognising a child friendly city is place where all children have access to good quality health care, clean water, nutritious food, a clean environment, adequate housing, quality education, caring adults and the freedom and opportunity to play and socialise with family and friends and to contribute to their environments. The health of future communities is linked to the health of children today;
Establishing safe and secure communities where children do not fear exploitation or abuse, are secure in their identity and culture and are protected from any activities that may harm their development now and in the future;
Promoting children's active involvement in issues that affect them by seeking, and listening to, their views and taking them into consideration in all decisions concerning their personal, social, cultural and physical environment;
Raising the quality of child friendly community and city programs by providing resources and assessment tools that will enable communities and Municipal governments to better assess the degree to which they are enacting children's rights;
Supporting a rigorous review of regional, national and local level legislation, regulatory frameworks and procedures and funding guidelines to ensure that they promote and protect the rights of all children, in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the goal of becoming a child friendly city.
Contributing to the development, implementation and evaluation of comprehensive regional, national and local level strategies to support the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and contribute towards the ongoing transformation of communities and cities to being child friendly environments;
Developing permanent structures or coordinating mechanisms within all levels of government with the role of ensuring children's perspectives are considered equally and as a contact point where children, individually or collectively, can access reliable information and support;
Building partnerships between children and their families, communities and all levels of government in order to ensure a whole of city, multi-sectoral approach to evaluating and monitoring the child friendliness of communities and cities;
Educating community through the implementation of public awareness campaigns on the specific issues and needs of children and the important role individuals, organizations, business and governments can play as child's rights advocates;
Securing adequate funds that will enable children and their communities to work in partnership to design, implement and evaluate projects that will contribute to improving all children's lives;
We, the participants of the Child Friendly Cities Regional Network meeting at Chiba, in collaboration with the 160 regional members of the Child Friendly Asia Pacific Regional Network, support and declare that regional, state and national governments who are signatories to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child should take up the key principles as established here in order to ensure we are as a region are working towards a vision of being a Child Friendly Asia Pacific.
Signed on this day 23 April 2009.
Chair, Child Friendly Asia Pacific Network
On behalf of the members of the network