Committing to rights
The inauguration of a new childcare hotline capped a week of efforts by Mrs Suzanne Mubarak in pursuit of an ambitious agenda of social rights.
Dina Ezzat reports
Dedicating considerable attention to publicly promoting children's and women's rights this week, Mrs Suzanne Mubarak reconfirmed her long-term commitment to the pursuit of these causes. Inaugurating the renovated Anfoushi Specialised Hospital for Children in Alexandria and giving the go-ahead for the first childcare hotline in Egypt, Mrs Mubarak stressed the need for intensive coordination between governmental and non- governmental efforts aimed at providing Egyptian children with a better future.
The launch of the childcare hotline, a service providing assistance to children with special needs, represents a fulfillment of one of the key objectives in Mrs Mubarak's action plan, which also includes eradicating social and health practices that undermine girls' and women's rights, and hinder their empowerment.
"We have made achievements [on the social rights front] that we have a right to be proud of," Mrs Mubarak said on Monday, "but we also have to realise that we still have enormous efforts ahead of us." Chairing the National Council for Motherhood and Childhood's (NCMC) Technical Consultative Committee, Mrs Mubarak emphasised the need for more accelerated and creative efforts for the national agenda of social rights to work.
On the governmental level, children's rights are figuring high on a long list of social objectives being pursued. The NCMC, along with the ministries of health, education and social affairs, are working towards quicker implementation of plans to eradicate illiteracy, combat female genital mutilation, reduce violence against children and women, and underline women's health and reproductive rights.
At Monday's meeting, the NCMC agreed to establish a number of follow-up committees that will work on assessing and encouraging progress on these fronts. By coordinating with all the concerned bodies, these committees will also be helping to establish a database, which will better identify areas where more action is needed.
NCMC Secretary-General Moushira Khattab called for even greater governmental and non- governmental efforts to ensure a more successful expansion of these kinds of projects.
Female children's rights are set to figure particularly high on the social agenda for the next four months. The Egyptian government, in coordination with several concerned non-governmental organisations, declared 2003 "the Year of the Egyptian Girl", launching a media campaign in support of girls' rights, with "No to early marriages. No to female genital mutilation. No to deprivation of education," as its primary slogans. According to Ambassador Nihad Zekri, Mrs Mubarak's chief of staff, the government will "continue to pursue the campaign's objectives, with an even greater emphasis on these issues this year".
Some government bodies have reported progress on several fronts. The ministries of health and education have indicated a drop in female genital mutilation rates and an increase in primary school enrollment rates for girls. Both ministries have also recorded a decrease in school dropout rates among girls.
Mrs Mubarak spoke of children's right to knowledge in an address she delivered in Napoli on Tuesday, while being offered a special award by the Italian-based La Porterio Forum for her support of cultural activities and the establishment of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Mrs Mubarak spoke to the forum of the work that was done by the Read to Your Child Campaign that she spearheaded, which she said had brought reading into the lives of thousands of Egyptian boys and girls.
