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| Executive Speeches
Greeting
by Carol Bellamy Executive Director of the United Nations Children's
Fund
To the Annual Interfaith Service of commitment to the work of
the UN: Changing the world with children
 13
September 2001
And so this week, we were changed in a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye.
Celebration has been supplanted by grief - and horror has overspread
hope.
The
General Assembly Special Session on Children will convene, but not
now. And we are left to ponder the immutability of the dark forces
behind Tuesday's terrible events - the same forces that trample
the most elemental notions of human rights and human dignity, turning
neighbor against neighbor, national against foreigner, haves against
have-nots.
We live in a world where insecurity and suffering is spreading
at breathtaking speed - quickened by an upsurge in armed conflict
that has already left 2 million children dead and 6 million wounded
in the last decade alone.
But in these trying times, let us never forget that in every child
who is born, the potentiality of the human race is born again.
My Friends, the vision of a better world enshrined in the Charter
of the United Nations begins with children and the realisation of
their rights. Each of us has the power to help transform the world
- and make it a place where every child can grow to adulthood in
health, peace and dignity.
So let us use this service of commitment to rededicate ourselves
to that cherished cause - ever mindful, in the words of John F.
Kennedy, that here on earth, God's work must truly be our own.
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