His Royal Highness Prince Moulay Rachid Says Yes for Children

Rabat – Morocco, January 13, 2008 -- The global movement for children rights, the Say Yes for Children was launched in April 2001. By May of the subsequent year, more than 94 million people had signed up, building the largest ever-global campaign of its kind and the official winner of a Guinness World Record.

Soon after the Say Yes for Children was launched, His Royal Highness Prince Moulay Rachid, indisputably one of the world’s leading advocates of children's rights, signed up for the campaign and began national grassroots movement across the Kingdom to widespread drive for support and pledges among citizens to build a world fit for children.

Deeply committed to youth issues and concerns, His Royal Highness Prince Moulay Rachid as a President of the Federation of Moroccan Scouting, launched promoting campaign to distribute pledges, an initiative where young scouts crisscrossed different regions for three weeks, using railroad stations and trains to gather support for Say Yes. In another program, Scouts traveled rural and remote areas on their bicycles stocked with pledge forms.

His Royal Highness build an innovation with aim to integrate Moroccan citizens into the world by taking part in global movement designed at changing the way the world treats children. Following the distribution of millions pledges to Moroccans, the country’s grand total rose to 6 million pledges made in support of Say Yes for Children.

His Royal Highness, who is chairman of the Moroccan preparatory committee for the special session of the United Nations General Assembly on children, has played a significant role in advancing children opportunities, including His notable efforts advocating for the rights, health and security of children both regionally and globally.

"To prepare the world childhood to take up the challenges of the future through speeding up programs to guarantee schooling to the largest number possible of children, to dramatically curb the child mortality rate, and to promote mother-and-infant and infant-and-child health programs," stresses His Royal Highness Prince Moulay Rachid.

Underlining that the encouragement of children's rights constitutes a best investment in human resources "we renew our firm determination to go ahead, take up all challenges, overcome the constraints and assume our basic responsibility regarding children, in accordance with the Convention and other legal frames related to children's rights," said Prince Moulay Rachid at the preparatory committee for the special session of the General Assembly on children held in the United Nations headquarters in New York.

His Royal Highness also stresses the need for governments and civil society to join efforts "to shield children, everywhere in the world, from the social plagues that thrive on children's vulnerability."

Prince Moulay Rachid deplores the situation of hundreds of millions of children in the world who still suffer "from famine, malnutrition, non-schooling, diseases, ill-treatment, exploitation for shameful ends, gender-founded social discrimination and regional disparities," calling the international community to eradicate such plagues and to take up the challenges of the coming decade.

Prince Moulay Rachid has chaired several global conferences, including second edition of the Second Pan-African Youth Leadership Summit, to help find solutions to the problems and challenges facing young people around the world today.

To discuss the theme of promoting tolerance, solidarity and youth-led action for sustainable development, Prince Moulay Rachid chaired the Second World Youth Congress on the sustainable development and the Millennium Development Goals in the spirit of “Be the Change!”

Since widespread poverty is still a major global challenge, His Royal Highness Prince Moulay Rachid is committed to numerous organizations focused on advocating for the rights children, to promote advancement in providing priority actions for children.

His Royal Highness believes that ensuring children's rights is a responsibility of every citizen. This principle echoes His advocacy, which emphasizes the need to pay special attention to protecting children's rights in order to reach their full potential, children must access their rights and grow up in the spirit of dignity, peace, tolerance and equality.

In this context, Prince Moulay Rachid as an advocate of children's rights at various levels with top priority actions for children to assure a brighter future is working toward greater awareness of children’s issues and is addressing the imminent challenge of achieving the Millennium Development Goals.