FIRST LADY OF VENEZUELA TO BE KEYNOTE SPEAKER AT OBSERVANCE OF INTERNATIONAL DAY OF FAMILIES AT UN HEADQUARTERS
Press Release
FIRST LADY OF VENEZUELA TO BE KEYNOTE SPEAKER AT OBSERVANCE OF INTERNATIONAL DAY OF FAMILIES AT UN HEADQUARTERS
19990512 The official observance of the International Day of Families, 15 May -- as proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 47/237 of 20 September 1993 -- will take place at United Nations Headquarters on Thursday, 13 May, in Conference Room 1, from 10 a.m. noon. Venezuelan First Lady, Marisabel Rodríguez de Chavez, who is also President of the non-governmental organization "Fundación del Niño" (The Children's Foundation), will be keynote speaker at the event, which is sponsored by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the Department of Public Information and the New York NGO Committee on the Family.The theme for the 1999 observance, "Families for All Ages", was suggested in the context of the International Year of Older Persons, and provides the opportunity to celebrate the contributions of older persons to families and societies, as well as to highlight their role and the inter- generational dimensions of families in the context of demographic ageing. In addition, the Programme of Action adopted by the World Summit for Social Development calls for strengthening family support systems as one way to protect older persons and promote their independence.
As President of "Fundación del Niño", Mrs. Rodríguez de Chavez works to ensure the general welfare of her country's young children and adolescents. She is an avid advocate for the Convention on the Rights of the Child and works to promote its enforcement. In this capacity, she has also been a devoted proponent of the recently enacted Organic Law for the Protection of Children and Adolescents, which will take effect in the year 2000 in Venezuela. Her civic involvement has been demonstrated through numerous public appearances throughout her country and through her commitment to social issues, in particular, questions concerning the Venezuelan family and the destabilizing effect of poverty on the structure of family life.
Other panellists at Thursday's observance will be: Didier Opertti (Uruguay), President of the fifty-third session of the General Assembly; Nitin Desai, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs; and Lenore Cola, representative of ATD Fourth World and the New York NGO Committee on the Family.
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