The situation of children in Chile, Uruguay and Vanuatu
During the next month of January, several countries with Marist presence will be evaluated in the Universal Periodical Exam. The Provinces Santa Maria de los Andes, Cruz Del Sur and the District of Melanesia decided to participate in the process to inform on the situation of children in Chile, Uruguay and Vanuatu, respectively.
Together with international and national organizations such as BICE, Edmund Rice International, or Franciscans International, reports were prepared focused on the following themes:
- Uruguay: youth justice, decent dwelling, school abandonment and violence against children.
- Chile: institutionalized children, school inclusion of children with special educational needs, violence against children and the right to participation.
- Vanuatu: boys and girls with disabilities and effects of the climate change.
One of the more important stages of the whole process is the effect or impact, so that our recommendations are accepted by the States and, later, that these may bring them up under Exam. With this objective, George Raczynski (Chile) and Mauricio Fuentes (Uruguay) travelled to Genève. Unfortunately, it was not possible for Andrew Litanga to travel from Papua New Guinea to give his report on Vanuatu.
Both Mauricio, as well as George were invited to speak in an important event: the Pre-session, which the UPR Info organizes. The organizations of civil society present in this Conference their reports to the Diplomats of different countries who are in Genève.
Besides, they had the possibility to have an interview with International organizations and with the Permanent Missions of Chile, Germany, Denmark, Slovenia and Ireland.
The Marists from Italy, Bolivia, Madagascar and El Salvador are already working to prepare the reports, which they will present in March 2019.