The ninth Paris Peace Forum is taking place in Paris on November 10–11, bringing together policymakers, experts and international organizations around four core themes: geopolitics, new technologies, development and ecology. A special focus of this year’s program is the Children’s Summit. On the panel “Children First: A Global Commitment to Child Well-being,” Saida Mirziyoyeva, head of the Presidential Administration of Uzbekistan, outlined national measures to support children and said Tashkent plans to submit the Samarkand Declaration to the UN General Assembly for adoption as a resolution.
Key Takeaways: The Paris forum is being held on November 10–11 with child well-being elevated to a high-level political session. Mirziyoyeva said Uzbekistan will push the Samarkand Declaration toward a UN General Assembly resolution. In Uzbekistan, every third resident is a child, and officials frame social spending as long-term investment rather than a cost.
The Paris Peace Forum, founded in 2018, serves as an international platform for dialogue, cooperation and action, connecting states, companies, donors and civil society around innovative approaches to global governance and sustainable development. This year it features more than 350 speakers across 80 sessions. For Uzbekistan, the appearance follows the World Summit on Investing in Children’s Well-being held in Samarkand on October 21–22, which adopted the Samarkand Declaration. Tashkent now wants to move that document from a regional commitment to a broader international instrument, although the path to a UN resolution and binding financing rules remains complex.
In her remarks, Mirziyoyeva said: “I am deeply convinced that the future of our world depends on the opportunities we create for our children today. In Uzbekistan, under the leadership of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, child well-being, access to quality education and the protection of children’s rights are among key national priorities.” She noted that every third resident of Uzbekistan is a child and argued that investment in early childhood produces the highest returns. According to her, Uzbekistan will propose that countries set a minimum share of GDP for healthcare, education and social support for children and maintain that funding even during economic downturns.
The head of the Presidential Administration also said no government can address the task alone. She said Uzbekistan is developing clear rules for investors to support projects for children with disabilities, children with cancer, early development programs and assistance to low-income families. She linked the two forums: Samarkand, she said, represents building durable systems of support for children, while Paris should focus on their safety. Mirziyoyeva warned that schools and hospitals built in peacetime often become among the first targets destroyed in wars, and called on the Paris Peace Forum to help protect such facilities and ensure that attacks on schools and hospitals anywhere carry serious consequences. She also called for continued work on child online safety and a global agreement under which major technology companies and donors would share responsibility for protecting children.
The next steps are expected to include formal promotion of the Samarkand Declaration at the UN General Assembly and further negotiations on online child protection with technology companies and donors. The forum website described the session as a key high-level political event within the Children’s Summit. For Tashkent, the test will be whether the initiative translates into sustained financing, international accountability and practical protections for children in conflict and digital environments.
Source: uznews.uz