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Summary: Geneva, 1 May 2002 - The United
Nations is set to
renew its commitment to the world's
children and adolescents as the
General Assembly dedicates a
landmark three-day special session
to explore long-standing obstacles to
young people's well-being and
development, as well as new
challenges to the promotion and
protection of their rights.
The United Nations is set to renew its commitment to the world's
children and adolescents as the General Assembly dedicates a
landmark three-day special session to explore long-standing
obstacles to young people's well-being and development, as well
as new challenges to the promotion and protection of their rights.
Scheduled to take place in New York from 8 to 10 May, the special
session will bring together over 70 heads of State and
government, as well as non-governmental organizations (NGOs),
children's advocates and children themselves.
The special session will also feature an unprecedented number of
youths serving as representatives of their official delegations. So
far, 179 of the
300 young participants have registered as members of
government delegations from 101 countries. The remaining
children are part of accredited NGO delegations. Many more
young people are expected to sign up, forming an intriguing and
youthful counterpoint to the heads of State and government that
will attend the session, which originally had been scheduled for
September 2001.
"It may seem like common sense to invite young people to a
conference completely dedicated to their well-being. But this is a
radical change for such high-level meetings", said Carol Bellamy,
Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF). "Children will literally be rubbing shoulders with
presidents and prime ministers. They will have a chance to voice
their concerns and influence the debate."
Reporting on preparations for the session to the Assembly's Third
Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) last October,
Andre Roberfroid, UNICEF's Deputy Director, said the tragedy that
had delayed the largest-ever global meeting on children only
emphasized the urgency of building a new agenda on their
behalf -- a more humane world, a world fit for children. That
catchphrase, the session's unofficial rallying cry, has been
adopted by delegations as the title of the draft outcome
document.
A key step towards ensuring a new world youth agenda will be a
review of progress made since the 1990 World Summit for
Children, where, with the near-universal ratification of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child, governments committed to
specific and time-bound goals on child survival, protection and
development. Key issues from 1990 remain central to the new
global goals, including further reducing infant and maternal
mortality, expanding access to clean water and sanitation, and
establishing universal primary education. World leaders will be
asked to identify strategic solutions to the problems facing
children and to commit the critical human and economic resources
that will be needed.
At the same time, the active participation of children, along with
the expected participation of more than 1,000 representatives
from child-focused NGOs from around the world providing a grass-
roots view of children's needs, promises to broaden the
gathering far beyond the traditional core of official government
representatives. Of the 3,765 NGOs accredited for the
conference, 1,673 do not have a previous official United Nations
affiliation. Bringing the voices of the world's youth and bringing
community groups -- who often work the closest with children --
into the decision-making process marks a historic breakthrough
for United Nations conferences.
Most of the child delegates will first participate in the 5-7 May
Children's Forum, where they will prepare positions on issues to
be deliberated by governments in the plenary of the special
session. The Forum will select two children to present its outcome
to the plenary. There will also be numerous opportunities for the
young people to interact with world leaders during the
conference, including several scheduled closed-door sessions.
The spirit of intergenerational solidarity that will characterize the
work of the session is expected to yield a set of goals and plan of
action devoted to ensuring the essential outcomes -- the best
possible start in life for all children, a good-quality basic education
for all children, and the opportunities for all children, especially
adolescents, for meaningful participation in their communities.
Report of Secretary-General
Hundreds of NGOs have already contributed to the special
session's two main documents. The first, an updated version of
the Secretary-General's report, "We the Children: End Decade
Review of the Follow-up to the World Summit for Children", was
released last week. That report, the most comprehensive study
ever released on the condition of children, provides a detailed
look at the progress on their behalf since the 1990 World Summit.
The results are decidedly mixed, with substantial progress in
some areas matched with stagnation and even outright
deterioration in other areas.
The child mortality rate and other statistics contained in the
report lend gravity to the basic United Nations assertion that
serious investment in the rights and development of children is
essential to overcoming poverty. The overall results reflect the
world's failure to invest adequately in young people: over 10.5
million still die each year, often from readily preventable causes;
an estimated 150 million are malnourished; and over 120 million
never go to school, the majority of them girls.
Backed with data from nearly 150 countries, the report shows
that the disparities and pervasive poverty of today are directly
related to under-investment in young people, especially their
health, education and protection. It says that if governments are
truly serious about reducing poverty, then they must make
children their first priority.
Draft Outcome Document
With that in mind, Member States at the special session are
prepared to adopt a wide-ranging series of goals -- outlined in "A
World Fit for Children", the session's other main document, which
addresses the pressing issues of child mortality, AIDS,
exploitation and poverty. The 21-proposed goals promise to have
far-reaching impact and will make a vital contribution to the
achievement of the Millennium Development Goals adopted by
world leaders two years ago.
Building on promises made at international conferences during
the 1990s, the 2002 goals aim to pull hundreds of millions out of
poverty within a generation. Gathering the goals into a single
document enables governments to focus on children as the
cornerstone of a stable, thriving society.
But new targets have been added in the areas of HIV/AIDS and
child protection, reflecting the changing nature of the challenges
facing the world's children. Five goals deal with the protection of
children from abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence. Because
of their often hidden and undocumented nature, these issues do
not lend themselves to delineated targets. Rather, each
government has agreed to investigate these abuses, to set
standards for monitoring them, and to protect children from them
with appropriate legislation.
Three of the goals address HIV/AIDS, whose devastating impact
was largely unforeseen in 1990. Today, children are both the
pandemic's primary victims and the key to breaking its
transmission.
A commitment by the international community on protection
issues –- including sexual exploitation, the impact of armed
conflict, child labour, and all forms of abuse -– is also expected to
be part of the outcome of the session. This commitment will send
a powerful message that effective national policies and
programmes need to be developed to address such issues.
"Healthy and educated children do not merely result from
economic development", Ms. Bellamy, has said. "They are a critical
force driving it. If we are to invest in development, that means,
first and foremost, we must invest in children. A single set of
global goals on children gets the world moving in that direction."