” “In Africa, instead, childhood is disappearing due to poverty, armed conflict and HIV/Aids epidemics. Aids, in particular, is creating a generation of “orphans”. This “demographic winter” is also affecting the developed countries, where “single-child families are by now the majority in Europe”. “Once again explained Glendon there are many causes, and it’s difficult to put your finger on just one”. The most surreptitious cause is the “mentality” that a child “is no longer a hope for the future”, and is replaced by “other priorities”. The academy members have shown concern in particular for the demographic situation in Russia and in all the Eastern countries, which have the lowest birth rates, a sign of their “disappointment in the transition to a free society”. In an age in which “childhood is disappearing”, the final message of the academy is just that “young people are our future. They are our resource said president Glendon and this demands that we believe in children”. “No society, no culture can afford to let their youth disappear, because real hope and the noble ideals of every country would disappear with it”. The Vatican plenary meeting was also attended by Cherie Booth, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in her capacity as a lawyer expert in international human rights.
