Introduction

World Summit: Follow-up actions

Advocacy and awareness-raising

The World Summit for Children and the entry into force of the Convention on the Rights of the Child raised awareness of children's issues to a new level. These two milestones brought children to the forefront of public and political agendas worldwide for the first time in history. Heralded in advocacy, media messages and by political and civic movements, these new standards and goals for the survival, development and protection of children united people as never before.

Over the decade, an alliance of individuals and groups with concern for children took shape, bound by common agendas and platforms for action. Examples of successful international advocacy for children were the efforts of Global Network to Protect Children Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation and other international NGOs in forcing the issue of commercial sexual exploitation into the public arena in such a way as to elicit government and private sector action; and a groundswell of international concern and advocacy, following the Report by international human rights advocate Graça Machel about the impact of armed conflict on children, which helped bring about the Convention on the Prohibition, Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction, the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict and other breakthroughs. The voices of children themselves were strongly heard on the issue of child labour. And a new groundswell is building in the new decade on the question of small arms and light weapons.

Intergovernmental bodies in all regions have engaged in serious consideration of child rights, often appointing focal persons, dedicating meetings and encouraging debates on children's issues, building networks to generate advocacy and engaging in cross-regional research on such topics as "Young people in changing societies", a project of the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre on the situation of children in Eastern Europe. Campaigns have ranged from the elimination of female genital mutilation to the abolition of child labour, and annual dates, such as the Day of the African Child and International Children's Day of Broadcasting, have been observed.

At the national level, the development and launch of NPAs often attracted considerable media attention. The ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child was often preceded by national legislative reviews and debate reflected in the news and other media, and accompanied by the revision of school curricula to reflect its key provisions. As a result of these efforts, many countries have reported an increase in public awareness and debate about children's rights, and children themselves have played active parts in shaping media activities. This momentum must be maintained if better times for all children are to be assured.

At the same time, the General Assembly decided, in its resolution 51/186, to convene a special session of the General Assembly in 2001 to review the achievement of the goals of the World Summit for Children, and requested the Secretary-General to submit to it at the special session a review of the implementation and results of the World Declaration and the Plan of Action, including appropriate recommendations for further action.

Back to World Summit: Follow-up actions