The exclusion of marginalized children threatens to block achievement of the Millennium Development Goals
UNICEF's 2006 "State of the World's Children Report" launched today in Beijing. BEIJING, 16 December 2005 - The exclusion of marginalized children from access to essential services and protection is threatening to prevent the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), warned UNICEF Representative Dr. Christian Voumard at the launch of the UNICEF's State of the World's Children Report for 2006 in Beijing today. The launch, attended by invited guests and the media, was presided over by Mme Chai Xiaolin, Deputy Director General of the Division of International Trade and External Affairs (DITEA) of the Ministry of Commerce, UNICEF's coordinating counterpart in China.
The Report warns that on present trends the goal of reducing child mortality by two thirds by the year 2015 would be reached 30 years late, in 2045. This would mean the death in 2015 of over 3 million children under five years old, who would have lived if the goal had been achieved. Voumard warned that while China remained on course to meet most of the MDG's, there was no room for complacency since aggregate national figures obscure significant disparities.
"Millions of children, especially in remote rural areas in West and Central China and among the migrant population, are being left behind as China's economic and social development continues apace", he said. Data in China suggests that while the maternal mortality ratio is declining and on course to meet the MDG target of a three quarters reduction between 1990 and 2015, the ratio was 4.8 times higher in Western areas than in coastal areas. Ms Wan Yan, Deputy Director of the Office of the National Working Committee for Children and Women (NWCCW) related the theme of the Report to the situation of migrant children in China. From the 2000 Census, there were believed to be some 140 million migrants including some 20 million children, she said.
Mr Zhang Baolin of the China Disabled Persons' Federation next highlighted the situation of children with disabilities. "Due to social and economic constraints", he said, "China has not adequately addressed the problems facing the disabled child, whose living conditions lag behind the national average level. The compulsory education rate for the disabled child also remains low", he said.
A final presentation was made on innovative approaches to mainstreaming children with hearing disabilities by a student and teacher at the UNICEF-assisted Tianjin Rehabilitation Center for Hearing Disability.
The presentations were designed to present strategies developed by UNICEF-assisted projects in various parts of China to address some of the problems highlighted in UNICEF's 2006 State of the World's Children Report. This year's report makes a sweeping assessment of the world's most vulnerable children, whose rights to a safe and healthy childhood are proving the most difficult to realize. The Report argues that neglect, abuse and exploitation heighten the risks of exclusion, leading in some cases to children becoming virtually invisible when they are trafficked into the hands of criminals for sexual exploitation, locked away in workshops or trapped in domestic servitude. These children, the report says, are often invisible in everything from public debate and legislation to statistics and news stories in the media. Other children, such as the children of migrant workers, street children and children with disabilities may live in plain sight but in many countries are inadequately protected and end up being excluded from essential services. The Report calls on governments and civil society organizations everywhere to redouble their efforts since millions of children are not being reached because of endemic poverty, poor governance and internal conflicts, or because some regions or ethnic groups within countries face severe disadvantages or outright discrimination The State of the World's Children Report is available in both English and Chinese.
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