This page is background information, last updated in May 2002 and still available for reference. For the latest on the Special Session on Children, please go to the Special Session index.

Young people plan action on a common agenda

NEW YORK, 8 May 2002 - The Children's Forum, which took place 5-7 May, is officially over, but the under-18 delegates from around the world who attended are not about to pack up, go home and forget their work. They have called for the continued, meaningful participation of young people in the Special Session and beyond and have outlined a broad action plan to advance the cause of children and their societies.

"We made a promise to the children of the world at the Forum," said Elahe Beheshti-Tabar, 16, of Iran. "And we intend to keep it."

Helping them keep this promise will be the many shared issues and priorities they identified at the Forum. "At the Children's Forum, we were united by a common goal, said Mandisa Nakana, 17, of South Africa. "I think this is different from the adult delegates, who get sidetracked by issues in their own nations. We young people have a common agenda, and we're very focused on attacking the root of the problems that affect children."

At a session for feedback about the Children's Forum, the young delegates reviewed the key issues the forum had tackled.

They urged governments to ensure that school curricula include accurate and useful healthcare information and to work to provide free health care to all. They said governments should recognize that poverty is often the root cause of all the problems that afflict young people, and they called on Western countries to forgive the debt of developing countries.

They urged world leaders to tackle problems of corruption. They asked for special care for children who are living in countries under sanctions. And they called on governments to require schoolchildren to learn about the Convention on the Rights of the Child and to ensure that every child, including those in refugee camps, has access to a quality education.

The young people asked for renewed attention to global warming and other indicators of environmental degradation. And they insisted that action to improve the 'environment' go beyond the 'sky and trees' to address conditions of urban dwellers, classrooms, and children's homes, including the homes of those who are disabled.

The delegates called on governments and corporations to stop supporting industries that perpetuate armed conflict and urged schools and media outlets to teach peace and tolerance.

They said that children needed to be centrally involved in these issues, beyond the Special Session. They called for the setting up of leadership training workshops and national, regional and international children's councils that would meet regularly to monitor governments' efforts to fulfill their pledges to children.

Some delegates to the Children's Forum will continue meeting with governmental, UN and non-governmental organization leaders throughout the week. All of them pledged to be vigorously active in their communities.

"We take it upon ourselves to go back home and fight for ourselves," said one young person in the audience. "We know what's best for us."