I

ndonesia on Saturday celebrated National Children’s Day (HAN) with a renewed commitment to stop violence against children and to reduce the number of child marriages in the country.

The commitment was adopted in a declaration that was jointly read out by 19 regents and mayors during the celebration at Sangkareang Square in Mataram city, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), on Saturday.

The event was attended by Cabinet ministers and more than 3,000 children from across the country.

In her speech, Woman Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Yohana Susana Yembise said the celebration highlighted three main issues, namely sexual violence against children, child marriage and child prostitution.

“Child sex offenses, child marriage and child prostitution are violations of a child’s rights to grow and to live a decent, useful and dignified life. The Children’s Day celebration this year should provide momentum to end them all,” she said.

Quoting data, she said in 2006 more than 24 percent of marriages in Indonesia were early marriages involving children. NTB was among the highest in terms of its child marriage rate. That is why the 2016 Children’s Day celebration was centered in that province, she added.

Yohana said children were national assets who had to be well taken care of and protected. Children had to be prepared as early as possible so they would become superior people with strong characters, a mastery of science and technology and a sense of competitiveness and grow to become agents of changes in the future.

The Children’s Day celebration, she added, would become an important moment to revive the people’s concern and their participation in fulfilling their obligations and responsibilities to respect and guarantee children’s rights.

During the celebration, the Indonesian Child Forum, comprising children from across the country, read out the Voice of Indonesian Children 2016, which among other things demanded protection from all forms of sexual crimes and child marriages, as well as exploitation and discrimination.

Representatives of the forum also handed 11,000 anti-smoking letters to Coordinating Minister of Human Development and Culture Puan Maharani, who was there representing President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.

One of the letters read out during the celebration demanded the President sign the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and free Indonesian children from cigarette smoke.

Meanwhile, Puan said that this year’s Children’s Day celebration, which took the theme of ‘Ending violence against children’, was conducted by considering various events and incidents experienced by some Indonesian children over the last few days.

“The theme has to be an inspiration for all of us that our children need guarantees and protection for their right to grow and live a quality life as the nation’s future generation,” Puan said.

Meanwhile in Semarang, Central Java, the Women Journalists Network (JJP), comprising 30 print and electronic journalists, celebrated National Children’s Day by performing a mini-drama on children’s issues in front of the Prince Diponegoro Statue on Jl. Pahlawan.