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The King and Queen, The Crown Princess Couple and Princess Madeleine at the World Child & Youth Forum
Motiv: The King and Queen, The Crown Princess Couple and Princess Madeleine with the Swedish Minister for Children and the Elderly Maria Larsson, Secretary General of WCYF Malin Dahlberg Markstedt, and Swedish Minister for Culture Lena Liljeroth. Photo: Janerik Henriksson/Scanpix.
On Friday 19 November, the World Child & Youth Forum (WCYF) was held at the Royal Palace of Stockholm. The event was hosted by The King and Queen. The Crown Princess Couple and Princess Madeleine took part, together with a number of prominent guests and speakers.
The King launches the World Child & Youth Forum
The King launched the forum. In his speech, he said that he had first spoken about the forum almost a year previously in his annual Christmas speech. "In my speech I said that The Queen, the rest of our family and I often talk about how we could help to improve conditions for children and young people as they grow up. One way would be to create a new forum here at the Palace."
The King continued: "Today we have brought together speakers who will share their wealth of experience in relation to working with children and young people, and their rights. We want to help, and to assist with raising awareness and creating inspiration when it comes to these important issues. Our hope is that today should be both memorable and inspirational for everyone."
The Queen talks about the 20th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
After his opening speech, The King handed over to The Queen, who explained that she had taken the initiative in connection with the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child last year to involve the Children's Ombudsman, BRIS, ECPAT, Save the Children, Plan Sweden, SOS Children's Villages, UNICEF Sweden and the World Childhood Foundation in a joint project to spread the content of the Convention throughout Sweden.
"We know that our childhood shapes our adult life," she said. "The more children and young people who grow up in environments where they feel support in both prosperity and adversity, the greater the chance that they will not end up in a destructive state of isolation, which sometimes leads to ill-health, abuse and crime.
"If every adult decided to look at every child they meet, show an interest in their ideas and feelings, and take their commitment to our shared future seriously, more children would develop a healthy sense of self-esteem and our adult lives would be enriched with new and important dimensions and perspectives. This is an essential inter-generational dialogue, and that is what we want to work for here at the Palace today."
The World Child & Youth Forum
The World Child & Youth Forum is a meeting place for inspirational dialogue between adults, children and young people. It addresses the importance of a good upbringing on the basis of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the opportunity for adults to work in accordance with the spirit of the Convention.
