Opinions & Interviews

Vladimir Makei thanked the UNICEF representative office in Belarus for the work it does in the country. “For decades we’ve been creating together a safe environment for children in social, economic, ecological, and legal aspects,” said the official.

Vladimir Makei recalled his promise to punish his little son once, however, the son replied promptly it was prohibited by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. “It means we have to teach kids these documents,” Vladimir Makei was convinced.

The Belarusian minister of foreign affairs pointed out that a lot had been done in the country to protect childhood and maternity as well as children with special needs. “Children are our future. It is truly so regardless of how lofty and trivial the phrase may sound. Not only the family’s future, but the future of the nation, the country, and the planet as a whole will depend on what we place inside our children’s souls: good or evil, destruction or creation, tolerance or hatred,” stressed Vladimir Makei.

Timed to the International Day for Protection of Children, the special event Partnership for Children took place in the Dipservice Hall. It was organized by the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in association with the UNICEF office in Belarus.

Attending the event were Belarusian Labor and Social Protection Minister Irina Kostevich, Economy Minister Vladimir Zinovsky, Deputy Interior Minister Nikolai Melchenko, Deputy Emergencies Minister Gennady Lasuta, heads of several commissions of the Belarusian parliament, representatives of municipal government agencies. Heads of the representative offices of the UN agencies in Belarus, diplomatic missions, heads of charity foundations, public organizations, mass media and their families were also present during the social function.

Children were the most important guests during the event. Among them were students of Belarusian schools, children with special needs, and children from asylums, including the Perezhir secondary school named after A.E. Gurinovich and the social and pedagogical center of Minsk’s Moskovsky District.