Declaration of Principles of the "City Initiative" Central Network for the Protection of Street Children and Children Doing Marginal Work:

Preamble

     Implementing the Declaration of the Egyptian Child Decade declared by the Egyptian President, Mohamed Hosni Mubarak that stated the period from 1989 to 1999 "the decade of the protection and care of the Egyptian child" emphasizing that children have preeminence in the national development plans, as well as implementing the first objective of this Declaration specified as:

    "Child care and development and the improvement of the general living conditions of all the Egyptian children.";

      Applying the Egyptian Child Law (Law No. 12 of 1996);
      Implementing the Convention on the Rights of the Child issued by the United Nations in 1989 and ratified by the Arab Republic of Egypt;
      As well as responding to the prompt adoption of this issue by Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak and her call to lay down as soon as possible the unified strategy for combating this phenomenon;
       We, the representatives of several concerned NGOs and government agencies gathered on Sunday, 12/10/1997 to examine the issue of street children in Egypt regarding it a source of great concern for the society. Children are the most precious thing that a nation possesses, they are the youth of tomorrow and the citizens of the future. They will take over the leadership of the society in all the fields of the civilization. Therefore, we thought it necessary to establish the solidarity of all the civil and government parties toward the target of saving the street children from the hazards surrounding them from each side and of protecting them from all forms of exploitation they are exposed to.
         Based on this premise we gathered and decided to declare the principles of the central network - civil and governmental - of the "City Initiative", believing that the mobilization of all the civil and governmental resources and opportunities is the most ideal way to face these children promptly and to give them assistance the fastest way possible. Driven by our feeling of our joint responsibility toward these children, we declared our principles as follows:

Article (1)  Making all the efforts for the coordination and cooperation between the concerned NGOs and the governmental agencies to raise the level of awareness to the highest practical grade and for the better care for street children.

Article (2)   Uniting the civil and governmental efforts based on the mutual understanding, respect and appreciation that will realize the development of the participating individuals and the NGOs interacting within the society - reaching a deep and overall development (rural and urban one) resulting in the development and welfare of the Egyptian child.

Article (3)   One of the tasks of the General Secretariat of the "City Initiative" Network will be to contact the responsible persons and authorities to give them recommendations for affairs they see urgent in the field of the children's rights and that can provide better legal, social and mental protection for the Egyptian child.

Article (4)   The joint work plan (civil and government one) laid down within the framework of the "City Initiative" Central Network is not binding for any of the parties in the independence of its work as a legal person, once it is for the benefit of the Egyptian child and it does not contradict the Declaration of the Working Principles operative since its approval by all the participating parties.

Article (5)   Any party of the Declaration of Principles will have the right to express its opinion and to discuss with another party its activity independently outside the network, but it should be made according to and in the manner of the Declaration of Principles, i.e. in the frame of a developing, constructive dialogue.

Article (6)   The agreement on a certain work within the "City Initiative" Central Network should be made with a consensus, even if it would cause some delay in effecting a certain action sometimes - regarding that the social work cannot be practiced based on majority and minority as it could have negative effects on the future of the network.

Article (7)   The content of Article (6) means that no party should ignore the point of view of another one, but we should give to all the parties the chance to reach a certain degree of contentment to move the joint work forward, while the continuity and practice of the work means the continuity of the discussion and further agreement and unity about the steps of the new joint work.

Article (8)   The participating civil and governmental parties of this Declaration firmly believe that the joint work and agreement upon each step of the work creates a pushing collective power being the power of influencing the reality and changing it for the benefit of the Egyptian child.

Article (9)   The "City Initiative" Central Network is not restricted on the participating parties but it is open and ready to benefit from any other initiatives, to listen to them and keen to invite others for dialogue and discussion for the benefit of the Egyptian child.

Article (10)   The General Secretariat of the "City Initiative" Network has the right to add any new Article to this Declaration according to the requirements of the field work in the forthcoming periods - provided that this does not contradict with the Preamble and the Articles of the Declaration.

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