Cuba hosts Co-Future Congress for Children's Well-being

HAVANA, Cuba, November 17 (ACN) With the participation of delegates from 10 countries along with a large Cuban delegation, the 2nd International Congress "Growing Towards the Future" (Co-Future), dedicated to children and adolescents, opens its doors today in this city.

Organized by the Center for Youth Studies (CESJ), the event is part of the celebration of the 35th anniversary of Cuba's signing of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as of the approval of the updated Children and Youth Code.

CESJ director Keyla Estévez García remarked that CO-FUTURE aims to strengthen theoretical, practical, and political perspectives on childhood and adolescence, both in Cuba and at international level, with a strong Latin American participation due to the CESJ's membership in the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO).

The conference will combine academic discussion sessions and initiatives pioneered by children and teenagers through special activities and panels, which turns CO-FUTURE into both an intellectual forum and a space for collective construction, practical debate, and contributions to public policy.

The event is also designed to reaffirm children and adolescents as subjects of rights, whose effective participation and voices must be heard in decision-making, and to make the most of academia, politics and knowledge to highlight the urgent need to defend and protect children in order to ensure a better future.