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What was the GA Special Session on Children? The UN Special Session on Children was held in New York in May 2002. The aim of the Special Session was (1) to review progress made for children since 1990 specifically by returning to the achievements of the goals of the World Summit for Children, and (2) to make a renewed commitment to children and develop a new global agenda for them in the coming decade. It was a high-level meeting that took place at the United Nations in 1990. At that time, world leaders established 27 specific goals related to children's survival, health, nutrition, education and protection. The goals were to be met by the year 2000. Why was the Special Session important? Government leaders and Heads of State, NGOs, civil society leaders, children's advocates and young people themselves. Around 3,600 NGOs were accredited to the Special Session on Children. The future agenda focused on four key priorities: 'A World Fit For Children' calls for new and additional resources to be allocated for child rights at both national and international levels. It supports the pursuit of agreed-upon global targets and actions for official development assistance, as well as the development of local partnerships. The document concludes with a section on follow-up actions and assessment to facilitate implementation and to ensure monitoring, periodic reviews and reporting. After the Special Session, governments were required to develop national, and where appropriate, regional action plans to ensure that the targets and benchmarks were achieved. Governments have been encouraged to develop National Plans of Action taking into account the key issues and priorities for children in their own countries, as well as relevant, cultural, religious and social traditions. The NPAs have been complemented by inclusion of these goals into other policies and development plans, such as Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP). The UN official report of the Secretary-General ‘Follow-up to the Special Session of the General Assembly on Children’ was published in August 2006 and includes an update on progress achieved in realising the commitments set out in the WFFC document, with a view to identifying new challenges and making recommendations on actions needed to achieve further progress. A total of 177 countries are now engaged in activities to follow up the goals of WFFC. Those countries have incorporated the goals into their planning processes by either developing NPAs on children’s issues or integrating the goals into mainstream national plans. Several countries have used both mechanisms. A total of 47 countries had completed NPAs by the end of 2005, an increase from 25 in 2003. In addition, 99 countries had incorporated the goals of WFFC into national development plans, such as PRSPs, by the end of 2005 - an increase from 68 in 2003. Efforts to develop regional, provincial, district and local plans of action were reported in numerous countries in 2005. In some countries, follow-up on NPAs at the sub-national level has been much stronger than at the national level. The official report also noted an increased attention to the CRC. The majority of NPAs for children make reference to the Convention or to the Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on reports of the respective States Parties to the Convention. A commemorative high-level plenary meeting will take place in New York from 11 - 12 December 2007, to evaluate progress made in the implementation of the Declaration and the Plan of Action contained in the document ‘A World Fit For Children’. The event will be organised as follows:
What was the World Summit for Children?
What has been done since then?
pdf: http://www.crin.org/law/mechanisms_index.asp