INTERNATIONAL DAY OF FAMILIES TO BE OBSERVED AT HEADQUARTERS 13 MAY
Press Release
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF FAMILIES TO BE OBSERVED AT HEADQUARTERS 13 MAY
19990512 The International Day of Families will be observed at United Nations Headquarters on Thursday, 13 May 1999, in conference room 1, from 10 a.m. until noon.The International Day of Families -- officially 15 May -- was established by the General Assembly in its resolution 47/237 of 20 September 1993. The keynote speaker for the Headquarters observance will be the First Lady of Venezuela, Marisabel Rodríguez de Chavez, who is also President of the non-governmental organization Fundación del Niño (The Children's Foundation). The event 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 1999, "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 intergenerational dimensions of families in the context of demographic ageing. In addition, the Programme of Action adopted by the World Summit for Social Development (Copenhagen, 1995) 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 Chávez works to ensure the general welfare of her country's young children and adolescents. She is an avid advocate for the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child and works to promote its enforcement. In this capacity, Mrs. Rodríguez de Chávez 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. Her extensive civic involvement has been demonstrated through numerous public appearances throughout her country and through her unrelenting commitment to social issues, in particular questions concerning the Venezuelan family and the destabilizing effect of poverty on the structure of family life.
- 2 - Press Release Note No. 5560 12 May 1999
Other panellists at Thursdays observance are: the President of the fifty-third session of the United Nations General Assembly, Didier Opertti (Uruguay); Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Nitin Desai; and a representative of ATD Fourth World and the New York NGO Committee on the Family, Lenore Cola. Representatives of non-governmental organizations, permanent missions and the accredited press are invited to attend.
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