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| Executive
Speeches
Opening plenary statement to Special Session of the
General Assembly on Children
by Carol Bellamy, UNICEF Executive Director
New York, 8 May 2002 -
Mr. President, Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates:
Twelve years after the World Summit for
Children, it is impossible not to feel the acceleration
of history. We live in a world where the only constant
is change - where what was beyond imagination yesterday
has already happened today, whether it is the fall of
the Berlin Wall or the deciphering of the human genome.
By the same token, who at UNICEF could
have imagined, as they sat calculating milk rations
for hungry children in postwar Europe, that 56 years
later UNICEF would be engaged on a global scale in development,
child rights, and humanitarian relief?
The World Summit for Children and the
decade that followed was a time of even more dizzying
change - and significant progress for children.
Soon after the Convention on the Rights
of the Child had gone into force in record time, 71
world leaders agreed to a set of ambitious, time-bound
goals for child survival and development, with a priority
for children caught up in armed conflict and violence,
neglect, cruelty and exploitation and all the countless
other horrific consequences of poverty and discrimination.
James Grant, my wonderfully distinguished
predecessor, marveled at the ripple effects of the Summit,
noting that a number of international financial institutions
seemed to be warming to the idea that development begins
with people - and that the well-being of the child is
not only a principled objective of people-centred development,
but also a major means of achieving that development.
As we confer here today, a dozen years
later, what would have astonished us at the World Summit
has become the norm at the Special Session on Children.
Child rights, women's rights and people-centred
development are now widely regarded as ideas whose time
has come. This is the first time the General Assembly
has addressed the issue of children in a Special Session.
And never has a major UN meeting invited so many children
and young people to participate as official delegates
- over 250 at last count and it is going up, most of
whom prepared for the work ahead by attending a three-day
Children's Forum nearby.
As I told the young delegates at the
Children's Forum closing yesterday afternoon, their
participation is what makes the Special Session special.
And UNICEF hopes that the leadership that they have
already shown at the Children's Forum this week will
inspire world leaders to join the drive for a more just
and peaceful world.
Mr. President, the 1989 Convention on
the Rights of the Child helped usher in a decade that
saw reductions in iodine deficiency disorders through
salt iodisation; an immunisation drive that has now
brought polio to the brink of eradication; allowed widespread
distribution of Vitamin A supplements, and sparked progress
in promoting the many benefits of breastfeeding.
These are all significant achievements,
literally unimaginable half a century ago. And they
would not have been possible without the vital partnerships
that have developed between governments, donors, international
institutions and broad aspects of civil society, including
non-governmental organisations, community and grassroots
groups - families and children themselves. They demonstrate
what can be done when commitments are matched by resources
and political will.
But for all the millions of young lives
that have been saved, and for all the futures that have
been enhanced, we have failed to reach most of the key
survival and development goals that were set at the
World Summit in such areas as basic education, under-5
mortality, maternal mortality, child malnutrition, and
sanitation.
Indeed, as we crossed into the 21st Century,
children under the age of 5 were dying at the rate of
11 million a year, most from totally preventable causes
like diarrhea, measles, and acute respiratory infections.
Some 50 million children were malnourished, often at
a cost of developmental handicaps that last a lifetime;
and 120 million children of primary-school age, about
60 percent of whom are girls, were not in class.
The proliferation of armed conflict continues
and grows and takes a horrific toll on children - and
setting the stage for wars that are passed from generation
to generation. As the excellent Graça Machel
has observed in her landmark UN Report on the impact
of war on children, millions of children are slaughtered,
raped, maimed, exploited as soldiers and exposed to
unspeakable brutality.
There is also growing recognition that
other forms of violence comprise of vast, under-recognised
and under-reported barrier to child survival and development.
Violence keeps children, especially girls, out of school,
and is a major health problem.
Progress for children has also been greatly
hampered, by the explosion of the pandemic of HIV/AIDS.
It is so devastating that it is already reversing decades
of hard-won gains for children as well as by the growing
number of humanitarian crises that involves children
- and of course by the long decline in Official Development
Assistance (ODA).
Poverty, inequity, joblessness and social
upheaval are all growing as rapidly as the human population,
and the prospects for relief have been clouded by the
spread of global economic distress. Moreover, the terrorist
attacks last September 11th have stirred fresh insecurities,
they have traumatized countless children - and they
have inspired the shift, unfortunately, of vast budgetary
resources into military spending that might otherwise
have gone, at least in part, to basic social services.
Yet for all the uncertainties in the
world, the future remains in our hands as never before.
And that is why this Special Session is so important.
It is an opportunity not only for the General Assembly
to review progress since the World Summit, 12 years
ago, but to re-energize the international commitment
to realizing a global vision for children now and in
the years to come.
As our Secretary-General has pointed
out in a $30 trillion plus global economy, the knowledge,
the resources, and the strategies exist to give children
the best possible start in life of quality primary education
and help in navigating the complex passages from adolescence
to adulthood.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Excellencies, creating a world
that is truly fit for children does not imply simply
the absence of war. It means having the confidence that
our children would not die of measles, or malaria. It
means having access to clean water and proper sanitation.
It means having primary schools near by that educate
children, free of charge. It means changing the world
with children, ensuring their right to participate,
and that their views are heard and considered. It means
building a world fit for children, where every child
can grow to adult, as a person in health, in peace and
dignity.
All this will require the exercise of leadership,
from the pinnacles of government to civil society at
every level - from non-governmental organisations and
business and private enterprise, to religious groups
and academia, community, media, grassroots organisations,
families - and children themselves
The world we seek has remained a dream for more years
than any of us can count. But we at UNICEF are convinced
that working together we can make it come through. We
can make it come through for each and every child on
the earth.
As young Dag Hammarskjöld wrote in his journal,
and I quote " Never measure the height of a mountain
until you have reached the top, then you will see how
low it is."
Thank you.
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