Conference report

The first-ever East Asia Ministerial Forum on Families was held in April 2004, ten years after the United Nations International Year of the Family. It threw light on similarities and differences between participating countries regarding the various forms and functions of families, the current challenges faced by families in each country (particularly those linked with modernisation processes), and policies and programs established in each country to protect, support and thus strengthen its families. The forum culminated in the Hanoi Statement for Regional Cooperation on the Family. The author of this article attended the forum. She provides a synthesis of the various country statements on family issues, and outlines the nature of cooperative activities to which participating governments committed themselves in signing the Statement.