NEW YORK–An Armenian Relief Society/NGO delegation attended the Second Substantive Session of the Preparatory Committee for the Special Session of the General Assembly in 2001 for Follow-up to the World Summit for Children held at the New York United Nations headquarters on January 29 to February 2–2001.
The ARS Delegation included Valentine Berberian–Penelope Giragosian–Odeh K. Demirjian–Anahid Ugurlayan–Janet Markarian–MaryAnne Bonjouklian–Taline Daghlian and Richard Giragosian.
With over 600 Non-Governmental Organizations participating from all over the world–the Conference had scheduled panel discussions–lectures–workshops relating to the children of the world.
The delegates were involved in organizing a workshop directed by Richard Giragosian on January 31 titled "The Transcaucasus: An Overview of Challenges and Crises Facing Children". This one-hour workshop was attended by 35 people–including Arman Akopian from the Armenian Mission–Peggy Kerry from the US Mission–Elshad Iskenderov from the Mission of Azerbaijan–Burah Zende from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey and others from Azerbaijan and Georgia.
The workshop was a success. Giragosian provided the audience with documentation about the status of children and the populations of Armenia–Georgia and Azerbaijan. He provided statistics on the children in areas of armed conflict and refugee children in those three regions and proposed solutions for the restoration of regional stability in the Transcaucasus.