First Official Event at City Hall at 10 a.m. on the 20th... Over 100 Participants Including Children, Youth, Parents, and Child Experts
On the morning of the 20th at 10 a.m., Busan City will hold the inauguration ceremony for the ‘2024 Busan Child Participation Organization’ in the main conference room at City Hall.
The Child Participation Organization refers to the ‘Child Rights Protection Group’ and the ‘Child and Youth Participatory Budget Activity Group,’ which the city has operated annually since 2019. It was established to recognize children as rights holders, foster a social atmosphere that listens to children's voices, improve public awareness, and create a city where children can be happy.
With Busan becoming the first metropolitan government to be certified as a UNICEF Child-Friendly City in 2019, the Child Participation Organization guarantees children's rights and provides a platform for them to freely express their opinions on matters related to their environment.
It consists of children aged 7 to under 18 who reside in Busan. Through child rights education, budget schools, and small group activities, the organization has held performance presentations and shared the outcomes of resident proposal projects and child rights activities.
This year, the city selected a total of 53 children as members of the Child Participation Organization through various methods, including open recruitment and school recommendations, targeting elementary, middle, and high school students living in Busan since May.
In cooperation with districts, elementary, middle, and high schools, and youth-related institutions, children representing each region were selected. To ensure child rights and discover resident proposal projects, the organization consists of 31 members in the Child Rights Protection Group and 22 members in the Child and Youth Participatory Budget Activity Group, totaling 53 members.
The inauguration ceremony, the first event of the year for the Child Participation Organization, will be attended by about 100 people, including members, parents, and child-related officials. The event will feature child rights education, a project briefing, appointment letter presentations, a pledge by the child representative, and a team-building orientation.
University student volunteers participating as counseling supporters, parents, and institutional officials will also attend to learn about child rights and build teamwork with the members.
Starting with the inauguration ceremony, the members will actively engage in various activities to promote child rights and make proactive proposals through step-by-step programs until December.
The Child and Youth Participatory Budget Activity Group discovers and proposes resident proposal projects through education on participatory budgeting and small group activities. Policy proposals refined through consulting will be submitted to the resident proposal project competition and reflected in city administration.
To submit proposals for the resident participatory budget, the group will conduct education on understanding ‘resident participatory budgeting,’ learn about budget formulation procedures and finances, carry out on-site campaigns and surveys, and present outstanding policy proposals at a performance presentation. They plan to participate in the resident participatory budget competition in December.
Additionally, the Child Rights Protection Group will actively engage in activities to improve social awareness as child rights holders, such as conducting surveys and monitoring on child rights status and producing child rights guides.
To promote child rights, the group will conduct investigations into child rights violations, discuss improvement measures through group activities, hold debates, and produce booklets and videos to identify issues related to child rights and seek creative solutions.
Mayor Park Hyungjoon stated, “Our city has made child rights promotion a core value of the 8th municipal administration to improve the quality of life for children, who are the protagonists of our future. As a result, we became the first metropolitan city to be certified as a UNICEF Child-Friendly City and ranked first in the ‘2024 Child Quality of Life Index.’ We will continue to respect children's opinions and make Busan the happiest city for children, where they can live safely and happily.”
Busan was selected as the region with the highest quality of life for children among 17 cities and provinces nationwide in the ‘2024 Study on the Quality of Life of Korean Children’ conducted by Save the Children and the Seoul National University Institute of Social Welfare.
With the vision of making Busan a city where children are happy, the city has selected and is actively promoting 64 key tasks in four major areas: establishing a foundation for realizing child rights, safety and protection, health and medical care, and play and leisure.
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