ANKARA, Turkey, May 12 (UPI) -- Leaders at an international summit in Ankara called for comprehensive measures to identify children at risk, particularly in the justice system.
Ankara hosted a three-day conference on children at risk with assistance from UNICEF. Experts from the United States, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Sudan were among those in attendance.
"The issue of children at risk is one of the most important social issues of our age, and we must all face up to it together and find solutions," Turkish parliamentary Speaker Koksal Toptan said, according to UNICEF.
The experts agreed on a final declaration that calls for global enactment of a national child-information system to identify risks facing children, UNICEF reports.
Reza Hossaini, the UNICEF representative in Turkey, said the declaration highlighted the need for sanctioning the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.
"This should include specific legislation, specific institutions and trained personnel," he said.
UNICEF said there are more than 1 million children believed held in adult detention facilities, where they face routine abuse and humiliation.
