WorldForum 2002 is the thirteenth annual World Summit for chief executives and senior staff of national nongovernmental child welfare organizations.

Registration is open to all child welfare NGOs as well as member NGOs of the International Forum for Child Welfare (IFCW). Advance registration is available online.

The WorldForum is a full five-day program with scientific sessions and social/cultural events planned for delegates and accompanying persons by the International Forum for Child Welfare (IFCW)- a non-profit international nongovernmental organization incorporated in Geneva, Switzerland in 1989 (http://www.ifcw.org).

The WorldForum Keynote speaker is : Jaap Doek, the Chairperson of the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, the highest international authority for interpretation of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The 10-member Committee meets in Geneva, Switzerland. States Parties that are signatories to the CRC must submit an initial report to the Committee on progress towards implementation of the CRC within two years of ratification; then periodic reports must be submitted every five years.

Jaap E. Doek is a Law professor (Family and Juvenile Law) and former Dean of the Law Faculty at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and at the University of Leiden (extra-ordinary chair on juvenile law). Currently he is a deputy justice in the Court of Appeal of Amsterdam and was a juvenile court judge in the district court of Alkmaar and the Hague from 1978 to1985. Prof. Doek is a founding member, and served as President from 1982-1984, of the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN). He was an elected Executive Councilor (board member) from 1976 to 1992, and ISPCAN's Vice President for Developing Countries from 1984-1992.