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The Road to the UN Special Session on Children

Process Behind Session Is Noteworthy in Its Own Right

NEW YORK, 24 August 2001 - Next month's United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children is a culmination of some of the most extensive preparations ever for an international conference, involving hundreds of meetings and tens of thousands of participants worldwide, including thousands of children and young people. Often noteworthy events themselves, these meetings included high-level consultations and protracted debates at national, regional and global levels.

The preparations officially began on 7 December, 1999 when the General Assembly passed resolution 54/93, the formal decision to hold the landmark Special Session on 19-21 September in New York.

The process is perhaps best viewed as a pyramid. At the base are 165 national reviews, where countries assessed their progress, or lack thereof, on behalf of children. Facilitated by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), these national stock-taking exercises fed into a series of mini-summits that determined the Special Session's agenda. Some were held at the regional level, while United Nations Headquarters hosted global preparatory meetings. The capstone will be the Special Session itself, the first one dedicated to children, which promises to draw dozens of Heads of State and usher in a new era of international action on behalf of children.

At the same time that the formal preparatory process has unfolded, a public campaign for children has been taking place around the world, the results of which will be presented to leaders during the Special Session in September. Called "Say Yes for Children," the campaign asks people to pledge their support for ten fundamental principles for children. Via the Internet and a paper ballot effort in scores of developing countries, more than 20 million pledges have been collected. The Say Yes campaign enables more than just "the usual suspects" to take part in the debate over children's future - it allows citizens from all over to consider the issues and register their own views and commitment.

The Primary Meetings

The most significant preparatory meetings, which included government, NGO and United Nations representatives, took place in two distinct sets. At six regional conferences, delegates discussed their local priorities as well as opportunities for concerted action, which were then delineated in written declarations.

Over the same period, the United Nations hosted three planning meetings in New York, called Preparatory Committees (PrepComs), where governments set the agenda of the Special Session and debated the text of a declaration and plan of action. United Nations agencies, NGOs, and experts on a variety of children's issues participated and provided input at each of these preparatory meetings.

Regional Conferences and Declarations

At the six regional meetings, governments presented reports on national commitments to their children. These reports outlined the progress these countries have made to date, and the challenges remaining. In addition to helping form the basis for regional debate, the reports were also relayed to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan for analysis and inclusion in his end-decade review of progress for children. (See Documents, below.)

Each of the six regional consultations involved, in addition to governments, NGOs, business representatives, United Nations agencies, and children themselves.

• Press releases from the May Prepartory meetings for the September Special Session on Children

  The Fifth Ministerial Meeting on Children and Social Policy took place in Kingston, Jamaica in October 2000 and resulted in the Kingston Consensus. This was followed the next month by the Panama Declaration at the Tenth Ibero-American Summit.
• The Pan African Forum, held in Cairo in May 2001, produced The African Common Position on Children.
• Also in May 2001, delegates from 21 countries attended the Fifth East Asia and Pacific Ministerial Consultation in Beijing, and adopted the Beijing Declaration.
• Delegates from 52 European and Central Asian countries and the Holy See met in Berlin in May 2001 and released the Berlin Commitment.
• Delegations from seven countries met in Kathmandu in May 2001 for the South Asia High Level Meeting on Investing in Children and issued the Kathmandu Understanding.
• The Arab Regional Society Forum on Children brought together delegates from 21 countries in Rabat, Morocco. The result was the Rabat Declaration.

These documents, representing the latest government commitments to children at a regional level, can be found on the web at www.unicef.org/specialsession .

The Preparatory Committee Meetings (Prepcoms)

The Preparatory Committee held meetings with delegates from United Nations Member States to set the official agenda for the General Assemlby Special Session and debate the wording of the draft outcome document. The Committee held one organizational and three substantive meetings. These Prep Coms were crucial periods for negotiations of the Special Session's final declaration and plan of action, designed to free the summit from such lengthy discussions.

Each Prep Com consisted of deliberations between government delegates, which took place in plenary meetings, as well as panels and other side events drawing the participation of NGOs and others. The first was in February 2000 (an organizational meeting); the second in early June 2000 (this was the first substantive session); the third in January 2001 (also substantive). The fourth and final meeting, which opened in June 2001 and is currently suspended, has drawn high-level government delegates, including ministers and over 50 personal representatives of Heads of State and Government.

The Documents

The Special Session process will result in two key documents. The first is a review of progress made for children in the last decade; the second is a new and specific agenda for children in the coming decade, to which leaders must pledge their commitment. These two companion documents are both essential to the Special Session.

The first document has already been made public. Entitled "We the Children," this report of the Secretary-General is an end-decade review of what has been achieved since the countries of the world made their first joint commitment to children at 1990's World Summit for Children. A composite of the country follow-up reports to that Summit, it also makes recommendations for future action. It was released for review by governments and other interested parties at the PrepCom in June 2001.

The Secretary-General's report provides a basis for the outcome document of the Special Session. Entitled "A World Fit for Children," the outcome document is a declaration and plan of action by all member states of the United Nations for the coming decade. The document will be finalized and agreed upon at the Special Session.

Once completed, it will embody the Special Session's main goal of a renewed pledge by world leaders to act on behalf of children. So far, after thoughtful and deliberate negotiations, more than two-thirds of the text has been approved and broad consensus is emerging on what remains. Informal discussions will continue up to the Special Session itself. The document has also benefited from extensive input by NGOs, which have released an alternative version of the draft document.

Coming Next

Over the next four weeks, final preparations are being made for the Special Session. As of 20 August, 78 Heads of State and Government had committed to attending the Special Session, and more are expected. The Session, the most inclusive United Nations conference ever, will also feature the participation of Nobel laureates, corporate CEOs, artists and writers, grass-roots leaders for children, and some two dozen UNICEF and United Nations celebrity ambassadors.

Beginning on 27 August, informal consultations on the outcome document will resume at United Nations Headquarters in New York. A separate press release on the key issues to be resolved and agreed upon between now and the Special Session will be issued the week of 27 August.

UNICEF will launch its flagship report, The State of The World's Children, on 13 September in New York. The report presents a picture of the global child today, and examines examples of successful, as well as failed leadership for children. The report will become available under embargo for journalists during the week of 27 August. Visit UNICEF's online press centre at www.unicef.org/media/presshome.htm .

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