Barcelona Declaration of International society of clinical bioethics «About protection of children's dignity and rights in the condition of global challenges and increase of their susceptibility, particularly, in Middle East and in the USA»

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XV Annual Conference International Society for Clinical Bioethics
Bioethics and Paediatrics: Future development and challenges Barcelona, September 20–21, 2018

Preamble

1. The International Society for Clinical Bioethics met at her XV. Conference on September 20–21, 2018 in Barcelona and discussed future development sand challenges in pediatrics, and for children’s protection rights, in an effort to make universal appeal to ensure every child is protected for a better future.
2. Children are our common future in our Globe. They depend on us, on the families, on the states, and international and local guidelines, and regulations. Children are vulnerable and dependent, therefore it is our duty to provide them with a happy future, healthy childhood, and protection from discrimination and violence.
3. An effort must make in order to ensure that the international, national and local standards to protect children's rights are strictly enforced. Global efforts must be aimed at zero tolerance to the growing vulnerability of children in the context of the scientific and technological progress, global challenges, and migration processes.
4. At the same time, threats to global peace, scientific and technological advances and a departure from the values of humanism create the conditions and prerequisites for increasing the vulnerability of children, many children still live in the risk zone.

Problems

5. We can state that threats to the health of children remain relevant on the international agenda and at the level of national states. These include war, poverty, hunger, racial discrimination, exploitation, adult brutality and other acts of violence.
6. With increasing migration and displacement, many children are forced to leave their homes and sometimes their families. There are migrants in all countries of the world. Their number is growing faster than the world's population, and in 2015 it exceeded 244 million people. In fact, every 4.1 seconds there is a new refugee in the world, while approximately 65 million people are internally displaced, including more than 21 million refugees, 3 million asylum-seekers and more than 40 million internally displaced persons. The UN notes that 46 % of the 45.2 million children and adolescents under the age of 18 are minors who become hostages of global politics and are even more vulnerable in these conditions.
7. Scientific and technological progress, designed to improve the life and health of children, promote their harmonious development and success, often creates prerequisites for threats and potential risks, including the consequences of genetic engineering, information technology and virtual reality, cybercrime, the growth of social inequality and access to social benefits, social maladjustment and many others. The lack of medicines it’s a reality The 50 % of the medicines used for children had not been tested with them, and 90 % in the case of premature neonates
8. We are forced to declare the emergence of a disturbing trend of dehumanization of international and national legislation in terms of the rights of children and their parents, the emergence of legal norms legitimizing children's euthanasia, which is a direct threat to the life and health of children, destroys the values of the traditional family.
9. All these problems lay the groundwork for dismantling the values and norms of positive results that have been achieved thanks to such basic international documents as the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (1953), and the Declaration of the Rights of the Childs (1959), Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), and the UN Convention on the rights of the child (1989).

Tasks

10. Compliancewith international guidelines and regulations for the protection of children and adolescents, therefore the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child to be a condition of the legitimacy at local, regional, and international level.
11. Ensuring children equal opportunities and access to healthcare and social benefits.Advances in science and technology should be aimed to improve health and quality of life of children, reducing injuries, disabilities, and causes of child mortality.
13. Protecting children’s rights of migrants, and internally displaced persons and to preventing their use for discrimination, exploitation, trafficking, and manipulation, and protecting their personal space, and ciber-space, and their personal data.
14. Children must be prepared for a responsible life in a free society and be able to adapt to uncertainty, to have the opportunity to define themselves as individuals, and realize their potential in a safe and supportive environment (e.g., family, education, sports, etc.) in order to ensure their well-being.
15. Remain committed to the values of humanism in the family, social policies, including those supported by traditional religions, to strengthen the relationship between parents, family, and children.
16. Bioethical expertiseand systematic organized activity aimed at forecasting new emerging threats to human potential and vulnerable groups of the population, especially children, is becoming socially necessary. The core of this kind of activity, in our opinion, should be.
17. Bioethical guidelines in order to minimize risks of vulnerability, guarantee the protection of children's rights in the context of global challenges and modern medical practice, must be formulated in terms of not only clinical, but also global bioethics.

Ethical duties

We hereby solemnly commit ourselves to:
18. To promote active participation of the scientific and expert community, of which we are a part, in order to protect the well-being of children.
20. To work together within the framework of international cooperation, as well as local, and regional level.
19. To include annually in the agenda of our international meetings topics related to the protection of the rights of children and to intensify research in this direction.
Barcelona, September 20–21, 2018.

International Society for Clinical Bioethics:
Awaya Tsuyoshi, Japan    
Guryleva Marina,  Russia
Nakatsuka Masahiro, Japan
Nezhmetdinova Farida, Russia
Pavlinovic Silvana, Croatia    
Pelčić Gordana, Croatia
Ribas Salvador, Spain
Sass Hans-Martin, United States
Shishido Keisuke, Japan
Tai Michael Cheng-tek, Taiwan
Tomašević Luka, Croatia

References

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