Press Centre
July 1997 - December
1997
UNICEF to unveil Cartoons for Children's
Rights campaign
Tuesday, 16 December 1997: UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy and
American television actress and US Committee for UNICEF National Ambassador
Jane Curtin will give a special preview on Thursday of the 'Cartoons
for Children's Rights' public service announcement campaign -- the first
global initiative to use animation to promote child rights. "The
powerful impact that an animated image can have means our message can
be communicated instantly to children and parents around the globe,"
says Carol Bellamy.
Malnutrition a vast and persistent
peril, says UNICEF
Tuesday, 16 December 1997: Malnutrition contributes to nearly seven
million child deaths every year -- more than any infectious disease,
war or natural disaster, according to the 1998 State of the World's
Children report released by UNICEF today. "The persistence of malnutrition
has profound and frightening implications for children, society, and
the future of humankind," said UNICEF Executive Director Carol
Bellamy. "Yet this worldwide crisis has stirred little public alarm,
despite substantial and growing scientific evidence of the danger."
World tunes in to children this weekend
Sunday, 14 December 1997: Over 2,000 broadcasters from 170 countries take
part today in the sixth annual International Children's Day of Broadcasting.
Highlights: Nickelodeon and its international networks focus on global
themes; in Mexico, Channel 11 presents "Together for Mexican Children";
in the Netherlands, eight stations including the Cartoon Network invite
children to the studio to choose their favourite shows; children take
over on the Kenyan Television Network for the weekend; and in the Philippines,
President Fidel Ramos signs legislation designating the second Sunday
of December as official National Children's Day of Broadcasting.
Stars
celebrate with A Gift of Song
Tuesday, 9 December 1997: Top music, film and television entertainers
-- including Bryan Adams, Mariah Carey, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Céline
Dion, Michael Douglas, the Fugees' Wyclef Jean, Sarah Jessica Parker,
Simply Red and Rod Stewart -- perform in New York tomorrow in celebration
of the US Committee for UNICEF 50th Anniversary. TNT is to broadcast
A Gift of Song live, and the artistes will donate the copyrights to
selected songs to raise funds for UNICEF programmes.
UNICEF hails landmine treaty
Friday, 5 December 1997: UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy today
hailed the signing of a comprehensive ban on anti-personnel landmines
as a momentous and inspiring event, but one tempered by the magnitude
of the task still ahead. "Any time that so many nations -- 122
as of today -- can act with such swiftness and resolve on so compelling
a humanitarian issue it is an occasion for rejoicing."
Expand steps to combat AIDS, UNICEF
urges
Monday, 1 December 1997: UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said
that today's tenth annual observance of World AIDS Day should be an
occasion not only for remembrance and solidarity, but renewed resolve
to protect the world's children from the accelerating spread of the
virus that causes AIDS. "With children increasingly at risk from
HIV/AIDS, there is an urgent need for expanded programmes of treatment
and protection, including education and AIDS awareness training."
Nearly one million Iraqi children
malnourished, says UNICEF
Wednesday, 26 November 1997: Survey results published today reveal that
almost one million children in south and central Iraq are chronically
malnourished. "It is clear that children are bearing the brunt
of the current economic hardship," says Philippe Heffinck, UNICEF
Representative in Baghdad. "They must be protected from the impact
of sanctions. Otherwise, they will continue to suffer, and that we cannot
accept."
Namibia wins Emmy for children's
broadcasting
Tuesday, 25 November 1997: The Namibian Broadcasting Corporation was
a winner at the 25th International Emmy Awards in New York, yesterday
for its outstanding programme for the 1996 International Children's
Day of Broadcasting. More then 250 children helped produce a nine-hour
special that included an interview with Namibian President Sam Nujoma
and a live satellite link-up with South Africa, opened by South African
President Nelson Mandela.
UNICEF calls for mobilization against
maternal mortality
Wednesday, 19 November 1997: In Bangladesh, UNICEF Executive Director
Carol Bellamy today called for a concerted, international mobilization
to combat maternal mortality, the single greatest cause of death for
women in the developing world. "We must reduce the violence of
maternal death," she said at a ceremony for women who died needlessly
of complications during pregnancy or childbirth.
UNICEF condemns civilian killings
in Algeria
Tuesday, 18 November 1997: UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy today
denounced the ongoing violence in Algeria, as the toll of child victims
continued to mount. "The world must not permit the sickening regularity
with which we learn of these horrific acts to dull our capacity for
outrage," she said. "It is time that the international community
rose up as one to demand that these flagrant abuses of human rights
-- particularly the rights of children -- are halted immediately."
UNICEF Canada goes online
Tuesday, 18 November 1997: The Canadian Committee for UNICEF has launched
its own Web, featuring its work in support of programmes for children
throughout the world, including a secure online contribution page and
information on greeting cards. Young surfers can visit the Kids
Room which offers, among other attractions, an interactive educational
'global village' game on human development called Window on Burundi.
UNICEF backs European plan to ban
tobacco ads
Friday, 7 November 1997: UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy today
expressed her support of a directive presently under consideration by
the European Union (EU) health ministers that could ban all tobacco
ads in their countries. "Not only would such a ban help save countless
lives in the region -- it could lend momentum to the broader campaign
for worldwide restrictions and sale of tobacco products, particularly
to children in developing countries," she said.
Help children
-- send an electronic UNICEF card
Friday, 7 November 1997: When seven year old Jitka Samkova of Czechoslovakia
painted a greeting card in 1949 to thank UNICEF for helping her war-torn
village, she never realized it would start a fund-raising scheme that
has since enabled millions of children to enjoy better lives. Today,
the UK Committee for UNICEF makes it possible for you to send greeting
cards via the Internet, and to make a secure credit card contribution
to UNICEF at the same time.
Brazil, Canada and Namibia nominated
for television award
Monday, 3 November 1997: UNICEF and the International Council of the
National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) have nominated
TV Cultura of Brazil, YTV Inc. of Canada and the Namibian Broadcasting
Corporation for outstanding participation in the 1996 International
Children's Day of Broadcasting. They were selected from 11 semi-finalists.
Conference adopts plan against child
labour
Friday, 31 October 1997: A 40-nation International Conference in Oslo
today adopted a sweeping global strategy, which underscores preventive
measures like education as the most cost-effective way to eliminate
child labour, and called on nations to give immediate priority to ending
the most intolerable or extreme forms of child labour, and to step up
investment in education and health.
Nations urged to intensify action
against child labour
Wednesday, 29 October 1997: Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik
today urged delegates at the 40-nation International Conference on Child
Labour in Oslo to accelerate worldwide action to free children from
"degrading toil" that turns them into "robots,"
deprives them of a normal life, and threatens global economic and social
development.
UNICEF urges deadline on child labour
Wednesday, 29 October 1997: Calling worldwide statistics on child labour
"appalling and unacceptable," UNICEF Executive Director Carol
Bellamy today urged governments to adopt a time-bound programme of action
to eliminate all extreme forms of child labour -- especially labour
that denies children their fundamental right to education. "Every
child is a miracle in the making", she said, "miracles that
we have an obligation to protect and nurture. And quality basic education
is the key."
Goodwill
Games to benefit UNICEF
Wednesday, 29 October 1997: The 1998 Goodwill Games, an international,
multi-sport invitational competition, has named UNICEF its international
beneficiary. Uniting the world's best athletes, the event will take
place in the New York Metropolitan area from 19 July - 2 August 1998.
A games spokesman said helping children is "an investment in the
world's future and involvement in sports is an excellent life experience
for children."
Education 'best means to stop child
labour'
Monday, 27 October 1997: An international conference opening today in
Oslo to prepare a global strategy to help 250 million working children
will focus particularly on education. "Child labour robs children
of their fundamental rights -- including the right to education,"
UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy says. "And education is
the single most effective tool we have for eliminating child labour."
Poverty eradication starts with
children, UNICEF says
Wednesday, 22 October 1997: UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy
today stated that children's well-being must be at the centre of all
efforts to end suffering and want, and listed seven areas for action
to end child poverty. "No strategy to eradicate poverty can succeed
unless it addresses the survival, protection, and full development of
the world's children," she said.
UNICEF welcomes support for landmine
treaty
Friday, 17 October 1997: UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy today
welcomed the move by the Russian Federation and Japan towards backing
a global treaty against landmines. On the other hand, she described
the the Khmer Rouge's assertion that landmine laying is an "inalienable
right of all Cambodians" as a "blood-chilling reminder of
how crucial it is for every country to sign and ratify the landmines
treaty."
UNICEF gets US money to help North
Korean children
Wednesday, 15 October 1997: UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy
today thanked the US Government for a grant of $5 million, to be given
through the USAID, to provide children and mothers in the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea with urgently needed medical assistance.
Hospitals throughout North Korea lack basic drugs and equipment and
the health care structure is in a state of virtual collapse.
UNICEF papers at child labour
conference
Tuesday, 14 October 1997: A set of UNICEF issue and background papers
to be offered at the International Conference on Child Labour, Oslo,
27-30 October 1997, deals with social mobilization and the interrelationships
between child labour and education. The papers focus on how social mobilization
against child labour can be sustained, and advocate the need to protect
all children from detrimental labour, particularly its impact on their
education.
Nobel prize will 'speed landmine
ban'
Friday, 10 October 1997: UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy
welcomed the news that the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the
International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) and to its coordinator
Jody Williams, and expressed the hope that this would spur the Ottawa
process towards a treaty outlawing such weapons. "This is a victory
for all the people who have fought to end the senseless maiming and
killing of civilians by raising their voices in the name of peace,"
said Ms. Bellamy.
UNICEF and Bank join in watsan support
for Africa
Thursday, 9 October 1997: UNICEF and the World Bank signed an agreement
today to work together to help provide safe water, environmental sanitation,
and hygiene education to sub-Saharan Africa, where over 250 million
people lack access to safe drinking water and almost 300 million lack
adequate sanitation. Much of the region is threatened by growing water
scarcity and deteriorating water quality, increasing water costs and
conflicts among users.
Aid decline hurting children, UNICEF
warns
Wednesday, 8 October 1997: UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy
said today the continuing sharp decline in aid, especially multilateral
aid, to developing countries is having a devastating effect on children.
"There has never been a time when development aid has been more
needed -- or the evidence of its past success more compelling,"
she told the National Forum on Development Aid in Dublin, Ireland.
Study highlights trauma among Afghan
children
Tuesday, 7 October 1997: Nearly three-quarters of the children in Kabul
do not expect to grow up to adulthood, according to a new study issued
today by UNICEF. The study, the first of its kind to be carried out
in Afghanistan, shows that the majority of children, having witnessed
family members being killed and seen acts of violence, suffer from nightmares,
anxiety and concentration problems, "One of the most significant
findings of the study is the chronic nature of trauma being experienced,
said Dr. Leila Gupta, author of the study.
 UNICEF
Chile now online
Friday, 3 October 1997: The UNICEF Chile Web, created and maintained
by the UNICEF office in Santiago, offers news items and information
in Spanish on child rights, including articles of the Convention on
the Rights of the Child, social indicators and surveys, the UNICEF country
programme, and a catalogue of UNICEF greeting cards and gifts. A Voice
of Children page serves younger audiences. There is also information
on UNICEF in Latin America and the Caribbean as a whole.
End violence in Algeria, UNICEF
urges
Friday, 26 September 1997: UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy today
appealed for an end to the on-going massacres of civilians in Algeria,
in which scores of women and children have been among the victims. She
urged that United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan's Special Representative
on Children and Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu, take up the matter on
a priority basis.
UNICEF hails $1 billion Turner donation
Friday, 19 September 1997: UNICEF today congratulated American media
tycoon Ted Turner for his $1 billion donation to United Nations agencies.
UNICEF said his generous contribution -- the largest charitable donation
ever made -- makes possible new and improved efforts to assist children,
women and all those living in poverty, and is an endorsement of the
UN System and ideals.
North Korea needs broader strategy
against malnutrition
Friday, 19 September 1997: UNICEF today warned that emergency food aid
is only a partial solution to the present crisis in the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea (DPRK) and that broader and longer-term measures such
as those in health and medical training are also needed.
UNICEF welcomes draft landmine treaty
Thursday, 18 September 1997: UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy
today praised the adoption of a draft treaty in Oslo, Norway, banning
anti-personnel landmines, but expressed disappointment over the withdrawal
of the United States at the last minute from the Canadian-led talks,
and the failure of the Federation of Russia and China to participate
at all.
Reports confirm estimates of Uganda
child atrocities
Thursday, 18 September 1977: UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy
said today new information on atrocities against children by a rebel
faction in Uganda confirmed earlier UNICEF estimates that up to 10,000
children have been victimized. "The evidence of these unspeakable
acts is overwhelming," she said, following the publication earlier
today of reports by Amnesty International in London and Human Rights
Watch in New York.
Judy Collins continues campaign against landmines
Wednesday, 10 September 1997: Singer-songwriter Judy Collins, back yesterday
from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina
and Croatia, spoke out strongly against landmines. A UNICEF Special
Representative for the Performing Arts, she was raising awareness, particularly
in the US, against these deadly weapons. Her eight-day mission coincided
with negotiations among 121 countries in Oslo, Norway, on a treaty to
ban anti-personnel landmines
UNICEF urges China and Russia on landmine ban
Friday, 5 September 1997: UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy today
appealed to China and the Russian Federation to join as full participants
in the Canadian-led talks to conclude a treaty to ban anti-personnel
landmines by December 1997. The call came as 121 countries negotiate
in Oslo, Norway, on a document to be signed in Ottawa outlawing the
production, sale, stockpile and use of anti-personnel landmines.
Japan Committee
relaunches its Web
Monday, 1 September 1997: The Japan Committee for UNICEF today relaunched
its Web, offering information in Japanese on UNICEF, the work of the
committee itself, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the
UNICEF Tokyo office. There are also social development statistics on
the world's children, and a page on how Web surfers can help UNICEF
help children.
UNICEF sees peril in new figures on development
aid
Thursday, 14 August 1997: UNICEF is deeply concerned by new figures
showing that aid to developing countries fell to an all-time low in
1996, UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said today. "These
are more than numbers in an accounting ledger; they represent a threat
to millions of children and to the societies in which they are growing
up. They are a testament to the persistence of appalling global inequalities
- and to the international community's shameful failure to eradicate
them."
Hunger threatens 800,000 children in North
Korea
Friday, 8 August 1997: Eight-hundred thousand infants and young children
in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) are now at risk,
many needing special feeding and urgently required medicines to halt
their downward spiral of sickness and malnutrition, UNICEF Executive
Director Carol Bellamy said today. "The safety net for children
is breaking down," she said after viewing the situation with UNICEF
emergency-relief teams based in the drought-stricken DPRK.
Protect all children from tobacco, says UNICEF
Monday, 28 July 1997: UNICEF today welcomed a public health panel's
recommendation to the US Congress that the United States should actively
promote tobacco control on a worldwide scale, especially in developing
countries. UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy reiterated that the
US, as the world's largest tobacco exporter, "has a special responsibility
not only for the children within its borders, but in every land."
60 million women 'missing' because of gender
discrimination
Tuesday, 22 July 1997: Violence against women and girls is a major obstacle
to social and economic development, according to The
Progress of Nations 1997. More than 60 million women who should
be alive today are 'missing' because of violence and other forms of
gender discrimination. Millions more, in every country, on every continent,
and of every class, live under the daily threat of physical abuse. "This
chronic condition of violence amounts to the most pervasive human rights
violation in the world today," says UNICEF Executive Director Carol
Bellamy.
UNICEF hails United Nations reform plan
Wednesday, 16 July 1997: The bold recommendations for reform announced
today by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan grew out of a vision
of a UN family dedicated to the most effective possible service to humanity,
especially the world's children, UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy
said. "The Secretary-General has presented the General Assembly
with an historic document that will help guide the course of the United
Nations and all its parts into the next millennium," she said.
Star musician signs up for children
Monday, 14 July 1997: UNICEF today named Siberian violinist
and international superstar Maxim Vengerov an Honorary UNICEF Envoy
for Music, the first classical musician to be so appointed. He will
travel to Sarajevo later this year to see UNICEF-assisted projects and
to meet and play for children who have survived the bitter war there.
UNICEF to launch major effort against malaria
Monday, 14 July 1997: Citing a rising death toll from malaria,
especially among children, UNICEF announced today that it is launching
a major renewed effort to prevent the disease and to care for its victims.
"Although malaria is preventable, it contributes to a child's death
every 30 seconds. It stands in the way of progress at every level --
from a child's intellectual and physical development to the growth of
national economies," said UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy.
Legal protection of children
from mines
Friday, 11 July 1997: Landmines, so often used indiscriminately, kill
and mutilate 8,000-10,000 children a year, and severely impede the healthy
development of millions more. UNICEF has participated in the review
of the international Mines Protocol to promote its objective of a total
and immediate ban on the production, stockpiling, sale, export and use
of, at least, anti-personnel landmines. It has just published a Child
Rights Guide to the 1996 Mines Protocol, intended as a straightforward
handbook on the legal protection of children from landmines.
Uganda rebel forces told to release abducted
children
Thursday, 3 July 1997: UNICEF today reiterated its deep concern
over the continuing plight of thousands of children abducted by the
rebel forces of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda.
The rebels have kidnapped an estimated 5,000 to 8,000 children from
Gulu and Kitgum and other neighbouring districts in northern Uganda
over the past two years (although no precise figures are yet available).
Most of them are between 12 and 16 and are trained as fighters, forced
into slave labour or given as wives to rebel commanders.
UNICEF urges new effort against global poverty
Wednesday, 2 July 1997: The resources needed to eradicate the
worst aspects of global poverty are less than generally thought, and
are well within the means of governments willing to earmark as little
as 0.7 per cent of their Gross National Product for development, UNICEF
Executive Director Carol Bellamy, told the UN Economic and Social Council
in Geneva today. "There is no economic issue more pressing than
poverty," she said.
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