In its 70 years of existence, OMEP became a global benchmark in defending the human rights of children from birth to 8 years old. OMEP defends Early Childhood Care and Education (from now on referred to as ECCE) as a right and tool to respect other rights such as comprehensive development, citizenship, well-being and dignity for all the children around the world.
In 1950, in Vienna, the second World President of the OMEP Suzanne Herbiniére Lebert said:
The OMEP MISSION is raised in Article 2.1 of its Constitution: to defend and promote the rights of
the child with special emphasis on the right to education and care worldwide. To this end, OMEP
shall help any undertaking which could promote access to quality early childhood education and
care, as this is seen as a fundamental pillar that guides OMEP’s actions in general, and this
strategic plan
The Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is the international treaty, ratified by almost every State in the world, which recognizes the human rights of children and obliges governments to comply with them. In General Comment No. 7 (2005) the Committee on the Rights of the Child reaffirms that “Young children are right holders” and should be applied holistically in early childhood, taking into account the principles of universality, indivisibility and interdependence of all human rights. While States have priority responsibility, civil society must also contribute to the
realization of the rights of all young children. The UNCRC is therefore another transcendental pillar that guides the action of OMEP, influencing and collaborating on the formulation and promotion of policies, laws, programs, proposing knowledge-based practices, collaborating in professional training and research, articulating local, regional and global actions focused on early childhood rights.
In 2015, with the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Agenda, the world’s States set out to continue and deepen their efforts to overcome the great problems facing humanity and the planet. In this sense, the SDGs have made us see education as a powerful tool to improve people’s lives and to help in social development, providing solutions to the problems of sociocultural, political, environmental and economic sustainability.
OMEP intends to renew its efforts to influence public policies, their implementation and resource allocation
decisions aimed at protecting the right to early childhood education and care.
OMEP intends to strengthen its role as a scientific and pedagogical reference specialized in early childhood for
the development of knowledge and skills, in order to share and apply them among members and with global
agencies, governments, institutions and communities related to early childhood.
OMEP collects, shares good practices and brings together research, reports and position papers to accompany constructive dialogues that contribute to advancing the achievement of the right to early childhood education
OMEP works so that all boys and girls have the right to quality education in early childhood. For this purpose, all OMEP national committees carry out activities for the training and capacity building of caregivers, educators and teachers, professionals and other educational agents, as well as public officials and legislators.
The committees organize congresses, seminars, courses, prizes and incentives in response to the training needs of the various actors in the ECCE systems, in different educational and social contexts.
OMEP develops strategies to strengthen its management, in order to consolidate a plural, open, democratic and participatory space that allows its members to think, understand, dialogue, project and act to achieve the goals defined by its constitution.
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