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We, participants at the conference “Civil society - to Russia’s children”, are convinced that one of the most important developments of the last decade is the fact that the interests of children, their rights more and more become a priority for the international community as a whole, and for national governments, in particular. Similarly, in the Russian Federation, after the ratification of the CRC in 1990, a number of critically important programme documents and legislative acts have been adopted, to bring national legislation in line with basic norms and principles of the Convention. At the same time, efficient mechanisms to implement this legislation in accordance with agreed priorities are not always in place yet.

Among major outcomes of the last ten years is the emergence and strengthening in Russia of a new agent of social change – Russian non-governmental organisations. Our strong belief is that the intensive development of the NGO sector in the country during the last decade has created necessary conditions for building an efficient social partnership between the government and NGOs, with more and more active involvement in this collaboration of socially responsible business representatives from Russian private sector. We believe it is high time to start developing a system of interaction between governmental, non-governmental and commercial organisations based on principles of social partnerships and multi-agent/multilateral social policy that would use the enormous potential of Russia’s emerging civil society.

We are sure that opinions, experience and achievements of Russia’s NGOs will form an important input of the Russian civil society into the GMC process and should help formulate a new Global Agenda for Children, to be adopted by UN General Assembly Special Session in September 2001.

We, participants at the conference “Civil society - to Russia’s children” with great concern observe that that child population of Russia has decreased in the last five years by 4.4 mln people, and the health status of young generation is permanently worsening. Hundred of thousands of Russian children are deprived of parental warmth and care, being often subject of violent treatment. Many of them end up as residents of public institutions. In Russia, more than 30,000 children live in public institutions for disabled; 40% of them are officially diagnosed as “non-educable”. As a result of current, often formal, procedures of mental disability diagnostics thousands of Russian children, instead of getting necessary social rehabilitation, find themselves isolated from the society forever, with no opportunity of normal development. More than 20,000 children in conflict with the law are imprisoned. Further escalation of these negative tendencies put the future of Russia under threat.

We, participants at the conference “Civil society - to Russia’s children” consider as our priority, the need to act in “zones” of most social risk. We see our main role in preventing the following negative phenomena in our society:

Social orphans and unsupervised children whose families fail to perform their parental duty

Alcoholism and drug addition among children, adolescents and youth

Risky behaviour of adolescents and youth as the main cause of HIV/AIDS

Institutionalisation of children with disabilities and deprived of parental care and locking them in specialised schools and classes that segregate these children from the society

Law delinquency amoung children and youth

Special vulnerability of children from rural areas, migrant children, IDPs and ethnic minorities

We, participants at the conference “Civil society - to Russia’s children”, do believe that the potential accumulated by Russian NGOs to date, defines their specific role of an agent of social change and reliable partner in the process of transforming the Russian society. The scope of this potential is defined by the following:

Vision of every child's problems from the rights prospective, as fixed in the CRC

Possibility to collect factual and statistical information locally and with relevance to a particular problem, in order to analyse this problem in a comprehensive way

Availability of social planning skills developed within local projects and programmes

Availability of social work technologies in the areas where possibilities of the public sector in Russia are especially limited – in social prevention and social rehabilitation

Availability of social technologies of micro-level, that allow to efficiently work individually with a child, his/her family and immediate environment

Promotion of the participation principle in development and implementation of programmes in the interest of children, adolescents and youth

Taking into consideration of local social, political, economic and cultural particularities and primary use of local resources

Permanent interaction with the mass media

Availability of communication and cooperation links between NGOs within the country

Practical experience of cooperation at the international level going beyond the limits of formal representation

In the light of our priority tasks and resources available for dealing with these issues we, participants at the conference “Civil society - to Russia’s children”, see the need for our immediate action in the following areas:

Selection, systematising and dissemination of experience of most efficient social programmes and projects aimed at protecting the rights of children, adolescents and youth in the fields of:

Supporting the family in performing its functions in the interests of health and development of the nation's future generations

Healthy life style promotion among adolescents and youth

Creation of job opportunities for adolescents and youth

Creation of leisure opportunities for children, adolescents and youth within the frame of various cultural, creative, sport initiatives

Early prevention of child disabilities

Family-based rehabilitation of children with disabilities, promotion of inclusive education, removal of societal barriers that do not allow those children to mobilise their own resources and develop to their full potential

Promotion of family placement for children without parental care

Social re-integration and adaptation of graduates from public care institutions

Restoration in Russia of juvenile justice

Introduction of institutes and mechanisms of independent control over the implementation of child rights at the federal, regional and local levels – i.e. Ombudsman, public inspectors and other forms

Strengthening of cooperation with government structures and organisations, including through the system of “social order” within programmes implemented in the interests of children and youth

Development of social partnership models with the private sector

Promotion of legislation supportive to charity initiatives in the interests of children

Active work with the mass media in order to form in the Russian society a clear position in favour of child rights protection and implementation, as the most important priority for the country’s security and development in future

Establishment of a regular informational exchange between organizations working in the interests of Russia’s children

Institutional formalisation of an alliance of Russian NGOs working in the interests of Russia’s children