IIN

Although from its inception and until 1956 the organization focused on health, there was an ever-present conviction that children's problems should be the object of an integral approach rather than partial solutions.

During this initial stage the IIN was known for promoting children's rights and as a center of documentation, information, advice and dissemination of literature on health and social issues. The Pan American Congresses which met periodically in different countries were true sources of inspiration in that sense. The IIN was the first inter-American organization to offer Management Programs for the Well-being of Children and Families as well as seminars on the nutrition of children and their families. In these seminars, the problem of nutrition was approached not just as a question of public health but as a social, economic and cultural concern.

This integral approach of child-related issues led to creating several technical divisions that kept changing throughout the years consistently with the new realities affecting children’s lives in the region.

The Inter-American Children's Institute has always been aware of the importance of rights, and especially legislation on rights, as one of the main vehicles to improve the integration of children and family into society. For this reason, the IIN has made important and innovative contributions in this area.

It should be particularly noted that almost every inter-American regulatory framework on children, adolescents and youth has been influenced by -and in some cases resulted from-meetings, research and doctrine promoted by the IIN, mostly through the Pan American Child Congresses that were held as from 1916.

In the '30s, both Dr. Morquio's commitment and a clear understanding of how to approach child protection led to adopting the Uruguayan Child Code. Among other things the draft Code stated:

"The general criterion on which this Code is based is that children's problems, by their very nature, by the means they require and by their demand of specialized personnel are so unique that they need to be studied and dealt with by a specialized organization. This organization is the Council for Children, whose responsibility is to deal with all children's issues, from those preceding their birth, such as eugenics, gestation and development of the child, to those related to all areas of their welfare such as hygiene, education, work, legislation, social services, etc." This statement by Professor Luis Morquio was the expression of an integral philosophy in dealing with child-related issues.

The IIN also worked with several governments, such as Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay and the Dominican Republic by offering advice on the design of codes for children and the family and on special legal provisions for their protection. On some occasions these efforts translated into legislative reforms or in the adoption of new regulatory frameworks.

The IIN was also the first institution to take up the responsibility of training human resources on the specialized administration of justice. To that effect, it provided university courses of the highest academic level on training, specialization and updating of family judges and courts for children and directors of executive organizations for the protection of children at regional, national and inter-American levels.

In the '80s, the IIN began to develop a program on international private law on children and the family for the purpose of studying and developing mechanisms to protect children and families at international level. The major program's achievement at the end of its first stage was the adoption of an Inter-American Convention on Child Adoption as approved at the Third Specialized Inter-American Conference on International Private Law (CIDIP - III).

The approval of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989 gave rise to a new era in the history of relations between law and children. From then on, the ancient paradigm of the child as "an object of repression and compassion" (the irregular situation doctrine) gave way to the new integral protection approach that fully recognized the basic rights of the child.

On such basis and adhering to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the IIN has promoted and will keep promoting the development and validation of those child-related legal provisions that may turn into effective instruments for the advocacy and promotion of the human rights that are specific to all children.

Since its creation the IIN has cooperated with various countries and non-governmental organizations in such areas as adoption, poverty, abandonment, institutional development, professional training, etc.

Special mention should be made of the technical assistance provided by the IIN to governmental and non-governmental institutions devoted to the care of children and families at social risk. Such assistance has mainly consisted of developing, monitoring and evaluating programs and projects as well as activities to improve the management of children's shelters and of national entities responsible for their coordination. The IIN has also assisted child-related institutions in policy design and activity planning needed to offer children multi-sector assistance.

The constant search for providing improved social well-being to all children in the region reached its peak in the '80's with the creation of the Unit of Social Affairs. This Unit was given the mandate to study the social phenomena of poverty and marginalization and their subsequent impact on the family and on child neglect or abandonment. The actions proposed to deal with this problem were very innovative at that time since they were based on preventive measures, avoiding as possible the uprooting of children from their family environment and keeping institutionalization as a last resort. These initiatives also had a participatory nature as families involved were considered to be active agents in the search for solutions, rather than passive recipients of assistance.

Another worthwhile issue is the significant contribution of the IIN in the training area. Through courses, seminars and workshops, new knowledge and techniques geared to improved care of families and children have been achieved in a planned and systematic way. The IIN has trained and specialized technicians to attain greater knowledge about children; it has also trained multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and inter-institutional teams and has improved the curriculum of professionals dealing with children by supporting their specialization.

The IIN is currently providing virtual courses on children’s rights by means of its web page. These courses are aimed at specialists in the areas of law, health, psychology, social work and education, amongst others. Some of the courses given are: Rights of the Child within the family, Introduction to Public Policies on Children for Drug Abuse Prevention, Comprehensive Assistance to Children with different capabilities, Gender, Family and Citizenship, Juvenile Justice Systems and Adolescents in conflict with the criminal law, amongst others.

The educational activities of the IIN have changed throughout the years, with the following being the main areas of intervention: handicap, learning disabilities, early intervention and stimulation, care of multiple sensorial disorders, vocational rehabilitation and pre-school education.

In 1987 the IIN expanded its educational activities with the incorporation of areas such as General Pre-School Education, Community Education and some aspects or specific topics of general education. Along that line, the Institute has been providing courses and training personnel, in an effort to look for improvements and new opportunities.

The IIN has also worked in helping children with learning disabilities in areas of reading, writing and mathematics. It has given courses and trained personnel in all countries of the Americas with expanding results.

The IIN was in the forefront of activities to make the countries aware of the need to integrate handicapped children into the school and social mainstream. Then, since the '80s, the activities of the IIN on handicapped children have been organized in three modules: Program and Execution of technical advice, Centers of Resources on the Handicapped PATH/IIN/Uruguay and Service of information and Documentation on the Handicapped.

The Third Inter-American Congress on Mental Deficiency, held in Argentina in 1986, with the participation of over 2000 professionals from the whole of the Americas and many from Europe, Africa and Asia, was a milestone in the actions promoted by the IIN.

In the area of programs of early intervention and stimulation, the IIN contributed to the development of programs in Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica. In the decade of the '80s, the IIN fostered the creation of sub-regional programs to facilitate the exchange of experiences and information on the topic. Two sub-regional meetings were organized: one for the Caribbean area in 1982 and another for the Southern Cone in 1984.

The Inter-American Children's Institute has worked for a long time towards effective and promissory achievements regarding the health of all children in the region, with a special emphasis on topics such as Comprehensive Socio-medical attention of children, nutritional problems affecting children and families, and education on hygiene at individual, family and school levels.

Since the Conference of Presidents held in Panama in 1955, the IIN began to promote and hold Nutrition Seminars for Children and Family in all countries of the Americas. These seminars were held jointly with other international organizations such as UNICEF, UUSC of Boston, PAHO/WHO, FAO and IICA among others, and proved to be very useful in improving the quality of life of children in the region.

Another aspect to be mentioned is the pioneering role of the IIN as a promoter of Social and Community Pediatrics in most countries in the region. The need to integrate services for research, prevention and healing within a single structure projected towards family and community, was promoted through Congresses, Conferences and Seminars. Eventually, all those events led to publications that had worldwide impact.

The IIN has also played an important role in promoting training activities for technicians and specialists in Health. From 1983 to 1987 the IIN offered training programs on health risks and care in several Latin American countries through workshops. These workshops were aimed at medical doctors and paramedics from the State health services, universities and public health schools.

Since 1988, the activities of the IIN in the area of health have been oriented mainly towards drug prevention.

By the end of 1981, the General Assembly of the OAS decided to create the Regional Inter-American Unit of Drug Prevention for Children within the IIN. To fulfill this mandate, four areas of activities were developed: gathering and analysis of data, technical assistance, education on prevention and dissemination of information through the Digital Center of Information.

Throughout the years, several works have been published on drug abuse concerning children and young persons, polls have been conducted, and information has been processed on this situation in the different countries of the region.

The Program of Youth Encounters on Drug Prevention has been active in the region with meetings in Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. To promote those encounters, the IIN has published a document entitled "Guide for the organization of Youth Encounters on Drug Prevention", that was distributed among interested people and institutions.

Seminars, Workshops, Training courses and exchange of experiences have been organized as well, thus creating specialists in this subject.

In 1987, the Inter-American Children's Institute undertook the responsibility to develop the area of information with the creation of the Digital Center of Information, which has been the base for the Documentation project. This base was further broadened with the development of projects leading to the Inter-American Program of Information on Children and the Family (PIINFA),

The development of this program sprang from the need of a qualitative change on the way information on children was gathered and processed. On the one hand, the IIN was aware of the importance of counting on reliable information in order to take appropriate decisions and make accurate analyses and diagnoses of the different situations involving children. On the other hand, the "information era" provided better and faster tools for accessing, processing and analyzing data.

The IIN being aware of the absence in the region of reliable information systems specifically related to the needs of children, started the Program of Information on Children and the Family in 1987. This initiative positioned the IIN as leader in the development of information systems related to children's issues.

Since 1964 the participation of the Inter American Children's Institute in the area of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics has been long but sporadic. From 1977 to 1990 the IIN developed a series of activities in legal and statistical areas, training and promoting legislation towards improvements in civil society and vital statistics.

During the 1978-1981 period the Regional Project on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics was operating, with funding from UNFPA and the IIN, with the goal of "facilitating the improvement of the civil registry in the States of the Americas, so that it can fulfill its two basic functions, juridical and statistical, as well the other functions demanded by each country's legislation".³

In December 1985 the Unit of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics was closed. The Unit on Computer Information and Planning continued its technical assistance. The most relevant activities during 1985-1990, carried out as part of the cooperation between PAHO/WHO-IIN/OAS were:

- 1987: Development of the document "Outline of a project for improving the Civil Registry and Vital Statistics".

- 1989: Development of the document "Program of Collaborative Work PAHO/WHO-IIN for the improvement of the Civil Registry and
Vital Statistics".

In the last few years the IIN has developed initiatives toward the improvement of civil registries, especially birth registration, in several countries of the region.

With respect to this, in September 2001 an agreement was signed between Plan International and the Inter-American Children’s Institute in order to conduct a survey and make a diagnosis on the situation of birth registries in six countries of Central America and the Caribbean: El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.

This diagnosis serves as groundwork for the development of a strategy leading to improvements in the system of civil registry, especially birth registrations, with the participation of high levels of decision making, registry officials and the civil society.

The aim of these pages was to give an overview of the activities of the IIN in its 78 year-history. The road taken has given us great satisfactions while at the same time making us aware of the daily hardships encountered by so many children. We are aware that in spite of our efforts towards improving children's conditions, reducing inequalities and including children's issues in the public agenda and policies of the region, they continue to be the main challenges and goals still to be reached.

The IIN, as a specialized organization of the OAS, continues to develop its own strategies, always in search of a consistent and permanent improvement in children's lives. With regard to this aspect, the Inter-American Children’s Institute is currently planning the new 2005-2008 Strategic Plan, which will be guiding the activities of the IIN during that period.

The Strategic Plan of the Institute for 2005-2008 was considered and approved at the Special Meeting of the Directing Council of the IIN held in the city of Brasilia on 25-27 April, 2005. This document resulted from nearly a one-year process that involved the participation of delegates from the Member states and organizations that have a close operational linkage with the IIN. It has been the object of observations by the delegation of the United States that are being currently analyzed by the authorities of the Directing Council of the IIN.

Within the framework of the new Strategic Plan, the Institute’s mission consists of:

On the other hand, it should be emphasized that the Guiding Principles of the Strategic Plan are: children as holders of rights; the best interest of the child; participation, non discrimination, gender equity and the family as the basis for the integral development of children, as well as a participant and beneficiary of strengthening programs and actions by the society and the state; the assurance of children’s right to an identity and to citizenship, and finally the regional and sub-regional cooperation as the pathway towards the consolidation of the “best practices” developed by the countries.

1- To promote among the OAS Member states consensus and commitment concerning the social, political and institutional
processes that should be fostered in order to ensure the enforcement of children’s rights.

3- To systematize and disseminate positive experience in the implementation of children’s rights among the Member states.

4- To promote the monitoring of children’s rights and disseminate the IIN systems for right-monitoring at national and international level.

5- To develop a communication strategy that promotes a culture of respect for children’s rights.

7- To create the conditions required for each OAS Member state to have its own integrally designed and operationally effective
National Child System.

8- To strengthen the relations with civil society and promote its participation in state subsidiary activities for the promotion and
integral protection of children’s rights.

9- To foster the dialogue on criminal policies for youth in the OAS Member states.

The Nineteenth Pan American Child Congress was convened by the Inter-American Children’s Institute (IIN) in coordination with the National System for Family Integral Development (DIF) of the Government of Mexico and took place on 27-29 October, 2004 in Mexico City with “The Family as the Basis for the Integral Development of Children” as its main theme.

Six Keynote Conferences were developed during the Congress corresponding to each of the following sub-themes:

Likewise, the Nineteenth Pan American Child Congress issued a DECLARATION (XIX-04) and adopted the following Resolutions:

The Declaration and Resolutions approved at the Nineteenth Congress provide for the programmatic and strategic grounds for the IIN action aimed to the promotion and protection of the rights of children and their families. Some of the proposed recommendations were:

- The preparation and presentation to the Directing Council of an Inter-American Project on Public Policies under a family and
community-based approach;

- The design of a training course on “Children, Family and Rights” for child and family program operators and managers;

- The preparation of an integral study on the rights of children and their families;

- The preparation of a study on the interpretation and application of the principle of the best interest of the child in the framework of
justice and family law, and

- The compilation of experience gained by government organizations and civil society entities in the application of intervention models
on family violence in the member states.

- The development of effective strategies to sensitize social communication practitioners on the importance of their role for the
protection and promotion of the rights of children and their families.

The experience gained by the IIN in these 78 years has allowed for focusing institutional management on three substantial programs:

The Program for the Integral Promotion of Children’s Rights (PRODER) addresses child-related emerging social problems through a set of methodological and technical instruments that have been developed for planning and implementing public policies targeted on the recovery of children’s violated rights.

Among other areas, it focuses its activity on Sexual Exploitation, Child Labor, Drug Addiction, Children with Different Capabilities, and Children in/of the Street.

This program particularly focuses on social issues affecting children’s rights through a common matrix of management and principles based on:

(a) The Convention on the Rights of the Child, as the guiding paradigm of all IIN actions;

(b) The cooperation patterns proposed in the 2000-2004 Strategic Plan of the IIN and ratified in the recently adopted 2005-2008 Strategic Plan;

(c) The new trends on child social policies aimed to equity, equal opportunities and participation by means of effective and efficient interventions, services and assistance;

(d) The optimization of the material, human and financial resources provided by the IIN cooperation in the region;

(e) The promotion of a Prototype of Targeted Child Public Policies, including the training of agents involved in each country through the combined use of face-to-face and at-distance educational methods;

(f) The empowerment of those agents, in both the state and civil society, who are able to generate a political mobilization on the specific issues addressed by the program, and

The Inter-American Child and Family Information Program promotes the use of instruments that allow for identifying relevant experience and research in the region and contribute to their dissemination at the various levels of action for the benefit of children. Its major purpose is the production and promotion of the use of information systems mostly addressed to all those individuals who work on behalf and for the benefit of children, for the purpose of creating integral information niches that will assist in managing the processes of change in children’s living conditions in the Americas.

Through the PIINFA initiative the IIN intends to identify a series of aspects that allow for:

- Recovering the region’s own identity as far as child-related issues are concerned;

The action of PIINFA is based on three premises related to information management: information serves for solving problems by providing grounds for decision-making; it is not an end in itself but a tool “at the service of…”, and users should be aware of its availability and know how to interpret and analyze it.

Over the last 18 years, the Inter-American Children's Institute has developed a Child and Family Information Network (RIIN) of 18 countries in South America, Central America and the Caribbean. In addition, it has created national sub-networks, comprised of: a Coordinating Center acting as a National Child and Family Information Center; Focal Subcenters (local intermediaries between the general public, professionals working with children and families, and the National Information Network); and User Centers (centers responsible for consulting and disseminating all of the information contained in the database). The network has a total of 110 information centers.

The system includes a database containing references to 81,500 documents, 2,200 projects and 13,500 institutions, as well as 7,000 full-text documents.

The Network also publishes periodical Information Journals (series and specialized issues), directories, the Yellow Pages for Children, and the Green Pages containing information on projects being run, available on the IIN website.

Since 1989, the IIN has been running SIPI, a system aimed at generating information to be used as the basis for decision-making, to improve the quality of life of children covered by public or private care systems.

SIPI general objective is to provide child protection institutions with information that will allow them to monitor and evaluate the care received by children, and to provide information for follow-up on Children’s Rights and the creation of social policies for children.

There have been four versions of SIPI since 1989, all of which are currently installed and operating in countries in Central and South America. The IIN is devoted to create a new SIPI version for Internet, so as to enable at-distance query and updating processes.

The IIN has been running an institutional website since March 2000. Its objectives are:

· To provide information about the activities carried out by the IIN Programs; as well as child related events and meetings

· To publicize information on national and international laws through its Legal Database (BADAJ);

· To provide a press portal (a journal of journals) with information from the region’s digital newspapers, updated weekly;

· XII Regional Network of the Inter-American Child Information Network (RIIN), with the participation of all the Information Centers in the network;

· Virtual IIN Executive Committee meetings, with the participation of the Delegates making up the IIN Executive Committee.

The IIN website receives an average of 800,000 hits per month, from some 70,000 different users.

The IIN has developed a Legal Database to collect, analyze and update legislation relative to children and the family in the region. This information includes:

This full-text database also includes bills of law as well as laws that have been repealed. It is also related to the document database, which contains part of the doctrine generated in the region on the above-mentioned subjects.

The Site for the Coordination of Actions for Children and Adolescents (CA Site):

With the support of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the IIN has created a “Site for the Coordination of Actions for Children and Adolescents” in Central America, the Dominican Republic and Belize. The objective of this site is to contribute to the resolution of cases of child and adolescent rights violations involving more than one country.

This Site allows different countries to coordinate and work together to solve problems (specific cases) concerning children and adolescents which originate in a specific country and can involve other countries in the region. Some of these cases may be:

Through this site, the IIN seeks to build a space that uses technological working tools to achieve greater efficiency in the exchange of information, coordination and follow-up of regional policies and situations concerning children.

Over the years the IIN has also worked for developing tools that allow for systematizing information on country progress and obstacles in implementing the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This process implied the participation of government and civil society representatives from more than 20 countries. Two technical products resulted from such work:

The Legal Program (PROJUR) of the Inter-American Children’s Institute (IIN) promotes the ratification of child and family-related universal and regional instruments by the 34 OAS Member states, as well as their accession to Conventions in the framework of the Specialized Conference on Private International Law (CIDIP) and the development of national regulatory frameworks consistent with such instruments and principles.

On the field of specialized technical assistance, the Legal Program offers the Member states of the Organization of American States (OAS) training, information, monitoring, and research services for the main purpose of strengthening the national systems for the protection and assurance of children’s rights in the hemisphere.

It provides assistance to child governing entities on such diverse areas as: key information systems in the juridical area, the facilitation of studies and doctrine application, training of system operators on areas of significance for institutional development purposes and the enforcement of rights, and direct technical assistance in lawmaking still in process, as well as national legal adjustment to the principles in the related international regulatory framework.

Pursuant to the strategic guidelines provided for in the 2005-2008 Strategic Plan adopted by the Directing Council of the IIN, the Legal Program was organized as per the following components:

A) JURIDICAL COMPONENT SUPPORTING NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL REGULATORY FRAMEWORKS ON THE RIGHTS OF CHILDREN AND THE FAMILY.

B) COMPONENT OF HUMAN RESOURCE TRAINING ON INTERNATIONAL REGULATORY FRAMEWORKS ON CHILDREN’S RIGHTS:

D) COMPONENT ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE “INTER-AMERICAN PROGRAM OF COOPERATION TO PREVENT AND REMEDY CASES OF INTERNATIONAL ABDUCTION OF CHILDREN BY ONE OF THEIR PARENTS.”

Further information on the IIN and its Programs may be found at: www.iin.oea.org

Amongst the activities carried out by the IIN there is that of promoting certain instruments for the dissemination of the Convention on the Rights of the Child through the use of powerful communicational strategies.

It is precisely with regard to these strategies that, for the last four years, the IIN has been promoting the production of videos (lasting approximately one minute each), about the rights of children.

Name	"I Wish"
Right involved	Rights of the Child in general
Duration	1. 05 minutes
Language	Original: Spanish Captions: English
Musical performance	Spanish version: Ruben Rada (Uruguay) Portuguese version: Gilberto Gil (Brazil)
Target audience	Children from the region
Broadcasting time	At hours when children are able to watch it

Name	"I am"
Right involved	Right to an identity
Duration	1 minute
Language	Original: Spanish Captions: English
Musical performance	Spanish version: Laura Canoura (Uruguay) Portuguese version: Jorge Versilho (Brazil)
Target audience	Mothers at risk from countries in the region
Broadcastting time	At hours when mothers are able to watch it

Name	"I participate"
Right involved	Right to participation
Duration	1. 06 minutes
Language	Original: Spanish Captions: English
Musical performance	Spanish version: Adalgisa Pantaleón (Dominican Rep. Portuguese version: Joyce e Margareth Menezes (Brazil)
Target audience	Children aged between 11 and 15 from countries in the region
Broadcasting time	At hours when adolescents are able to watch it

Name	"It is my family"
Right involved	Right to a family
Duration	1. 13 minutes
Language	Original: Spanish Captions: English
Musical performance	Spanish version: Grupo Pandora (Mexico) Portuguese version: Ná Ozzetti
Target audience	Children aged between 8 and 12 from countries in the region
Broadcasting time	At hours when children are able to watch it

Name	"We want to be Cared for"
Right involved	Right to be protected against maltreatment
Duration	1. 13 minutes
Language	Original: Spanish Captions: English
Musical performance	Spanish version: Leonardo Croatto - Coro de niños y niñas (Uruguay) Portuguese version: Bruno Gouveia – Biquini Cavadão (Brazil)
Target audience	Children and their families
Broadcasting time	At times when children are able to watch it

Name	"I want to Play"
Right involved	Right to engage in play and recreational activities
Duration	1. 15 minutes
Language	Original: Spanish Captions: English
Musical performance	Spanish version:Coro de niños y niñas (Uruguay) Portuguese version: Luiz Melodia (Brazil)
Target audience	Children from countries in the region
Broadcasting time	At hours when children are able to watch it

Name	"I want to Learn"
Right involved	Right to education
Duration	1. 22 minutes
Language	Original: Spanish Captions: English
Musical performance	Spanish version: Mariana Ingold (Uruguay) Portuguese version: Fernanda Takai – Pato Fu
Target audience	Children from countries in the region
Broadcasting time	At hours when children are able to watch it

Name	"We want to live"
Right involved	Right to Life
Duration	1. 30 minutes
Language	Original: Spanish Captions: English
Musical performance	Spanish version: Adriana Echeverry (Colombiana)
Target audience	Children from countries in the region
Broadcasting time	At hours when children are able to watch it

Name	"Inter-American Democratic Charter"
Right involved	Right to Participation Right to an Identity Rights of the Child in general
Duration	49 seconds
Language	Original: Spanish Captions: English
Musical performance	Spanish version: Eddie Peñalver (Cuba) - Children's Choir from Uruguay
Target audience	Public in general, and particularly, children from the region
Broadcasting time	At hours when everyone in the family is able to watch it

The IIN has also produced an educational kit to be installed in computers which includes programs and products developed by the IIN in order to enable children at schools to use computer tools as a means of enhancing their knowledge about the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The full functioning of these programs places the IIN in the vanguard as far as the coordination of policies and protection programs for children is concerned.

The IIN has invested much energy in promoting the inclusion of child-related issues in the political agenda of the region. Its strategy has been to strengthen the presence of the IIN in the political arena by promoting and organizing regional and international Forums.

A good example of these efforts are the Meetings of First Ladies of Central America, Belize, Panama and the Dominican Republic, convened by the IIN since 2000.

The philosophy of the IIN has been and will always be to adjust its modus operandi to the realities and programs of the different countries of the region, in order to promote, above all, the defense and comprehensive development of all children.