Gwangju City Holds UNICEF 'Child-Friendly City' Certification Ceremony

Mayor Lee Yong-seop: "We Will Strive to Actively Implement the Children's Rights Charter"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 31st that it held a UNICEF Child Friendly City certification proclamation ceremony.

At the proclamation ceremony, about 600 people including Lee Yong-seop, Mayor of Gwangju, Lee Ki-cheol, Secretary General of the Korean Committee for UNICEF, Park Mi-jung, Chair of the City Council Environment and Welfare Committee, Jang Hwi-guk, Superintendent of Education, members of the Child and Youth Friendly City Promotion Committee, children and adolescents, and related personnel participated. The event included a video screening of the Child Friendly City promotion process, presentation of the certificate and plaque by the Secretary General of the Korean Committee for UNICEF, proclamation of the Child Friendly City, and congratulatory performances.

In particular, the event was jointly hosted by children and adolescents, the main protagonists of the day, who actively participated throughout the entire ceremony including reading the Child Rights Charter, presenting the certificate and plaque, and the congratulatory performances.

The Child Friendly City (UNICEF Child Friendly Cities) is a system certified by the Korean Committee for UNICEF to local governments that have child-friendly environments to fully realize the rights of children contained in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and to enable children to live better lives.

Since 2015, Gwangju has been operating the Child and Youth Council, the first of its kind among metropolitan cities and provinces nationwide, composed of children and adolescents elected through direct elections, starting with the enactment of the “Ordinance on the Creation of Child and Youth Friendly Cities” to implement child-friendly policies.

In addition, to raise awareness of children's rights, Gwangju conducts “customized visiting child rights education,” continuously monitors the status of children through child status promotion, and faithfully implements the 10 principles and 46 component elements necessary for creating a Child Friendly City, including establishing and promoting the basic (implementation) plan for creating a Child and Youth Friendly City.

As a result, Gwangju was selected as an excellent institution in the local government evaluation of the Ministry of Health and Welfare's Child Policy Implementation Plan from 2015 to 2016, and was consecutively selected as the best institution in the evaluations of 2017 and 2018?2019 (two-year simultaneous evaluation).

Accordingly, Gwangju became the second metropolitan city, after Busan, to be certified as a Child Friendly City by the Korean Committee for UNICEF on the 26th of last month.

Gwangju plans to continue implementing various policies for the Child Friendly City.

First, from next year until 2025, it will establish the second phase basic plan for creating a Child and Youth Friendly City, and to actively reflect the opinions of younger children, it will separate and operate the Children’s Council and the Youth Council.

It will also promote improvements to the system for rights violations through the activation of the Child Rights Ombudsperson operation, conduct surveys to guarantee the living and play rights of children and adolescents, and continuously strive to discover and policy-ize child policies in various fields.

Mayor Lee Yong-seop said, “We will actively realize the Child Rights Charter in Gwangju, including the right to freely pursue dreams and challenges and the right to confidently voice opinions anytime and anywhere,” and added, “We will make greater efforts to create a happy Gwangju that is focused on having and raising children.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.