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H u m a n R i g h t s E d u c at i o n i n A s i a - Pa c i f i cAppendix AChiba Declaration for a Child Friendly Asia Pacific, 2009*
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 ourgovernments, 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 [UN] Convention on the Rights of the Childof 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 islinked to the health of children today;
Establishing safe and secure communities where children do not fear exploitation orabuse, 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, andlistening 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;*This document has been slightly edited.

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Supporting a rigorous review of regional, national and local level legislations, regulatory
frameworks and procedures and funding guidelines to ensure that they promote andprotect 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 theConvention on the Rights of the Child and contribute towards the ongoing transformationof communities and cities to being child friendly environments;
Developing permanent structures or coordinating mechanisms within all levels ofgovernment 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 ofgovernment in order to ensure a whole of city, multi-sectoral approach to evaluating andmonitoring the child friendliness of communities and cities;
Educating community through the implementation of public awareness campaigns on thespecific issues and needs of children and the important role individuals, organizations,business and governments can play as [child] rights advocates;
Securing adequate funds that will enable children and their communities to work inpartnership 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, incollaboration with the 160 regional members of the Child Friendly Asia Pacific Regional
Network, support and declare that regional, state and national governments who aresignatories 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 NetworkOn behalf of the members of the network