SUMMARY OF IFCW's PARTICIPATION AT THE UN IN 2005/2006

Worldforum 2006, co-hosted by Ministry of Children and Family Development (BC), CWLC, IFCW and Alberta's Children Services, was held in Vancouver, BC from November 19 - 22 and by all accounts it was an overwhelming success. Worldforum 2006 was an international event, with 34 different countries represented. Youth participated as planners, delegates, presenters, entertainers and volunteers.

The Hon. Tom Christensen, Minister of Child and Family Development for British Columbia, opened the conference and welcomed everyone to BC. November 20 is National Child Day in Canada and one of the ways that children and youth were included was the participation of the “Children of the Rainbow”, an Aboriginal drum group. Click here to listen to Minister Christensen's speech and view clips of the Aboriginal drummers.

CWLC presented its Youth Leadership Achievement Awards to three of the five recipients at the worldforum 2006 banquet. Chantal Lalande, Andrew Mahew and Emily Valentine were given a standing ovation upon receiving their awards from Michael Udy, CWLC President. Myrtho Charlot and Leaha Schultz, the other recipients, will receive their awards at a later date.

CWLC received its own award at the banquet! IFCW presented CWLC with an award for “recognition of outstanding membership contribution to IFCW worldforum 2006”. On behalf of all CWLC members Peter Dudding accepted the award, which is now on display at CWLC offices.

The keynote speakers included Stephen Lewis, Nigel Fisher, Bruce Perry and Danya Glaser. The plenary program featured presentations on international and national child and youth issues at UNICEF; Aboriginal child and youth issues; Internet sexual exploitation; child trauma; UN Study on Violence Against Children; and neurobiological effects of child maltreatment. Some presentations from the plenary speakers will be made available on the worldforum 2006 website in January.

WorldForum 2007 will be in New Dehli, India and will be hosted by Deepalaya. CWLC is the Canadian members of IFCW and Peter Dudding, CWLC ED, will be assisting with the conference programming. Information is now posted on the website.