|
|
|
| Press Release
Unofficial excerpts from the United
Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children
Final Outcome Document, "A World Fit for Children"
10 May 2002
Agreed goals
I. Promoting Healthy Lives
(a) Reduction in the infant and under-five mortality
rate by at least one third, in pursuit of the goal of
reducing it by two thirds by 2015;
(b) Reduction in the maternal mortality ratio by at
least one third, in pursuit of the goal of reducing
it by three quarters by 2015;
(c) Reduction of child malnutrition among children
underfive years of age by at least one third, with special
attention to children under two years of age, and reduction
in the rate of low birth weight by at least one third
of the current rate;
(d) Reduction in the proportion of households without
access to hygienic sanitation facilities and affordable
and safe drinking water by at least one third;
(e) Development and implementation of national early
childhood development policies and programmes to ensure
the enhancement of children's physical, social, emotional,
spiritual and cognitive development;
(f) Development and implementation of national health
policies and programmes for adolescents, including goals
and indicators, to promote their physical and mental
health;
(g) Access through the primary health-care system to
reproductive health for all individuals of appropriate
ages as soon as possible and no later than 2015.
II. Providing Quality Education
(a) Expand and improve comprehensive early childhood
care and education, for girls and boys, especially for
the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children;
(b) Reduce the number of primary school-age children
who are out of school by 50 per cent and increase net
primary school enrolment or participation in alternative,
good quality primary education programmes to at least
90 per cent by 2010;
(c) Eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary
education by 2005 and achieve gender equality in education
by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls' full and equal
access to and achievement in basic education of good
quality;
(d) Improve all aspects of the quality of education
so that children and young people achieve recognized
and measurable learning outcomes, especially in numeracy,
literacy and essential life skills;
(e) Ensure that the learning needs of all young people
are met through access to appropriate learning and life
skills programmes;
(f) Achieve a 50 per cent improvement in levels of
adult literacy by 2015, especially for women.
III. Protecting against abuse, exploitation and violence
(a) Protect children from all forms of abuse, neglect,
exploitation and violence;
(b) Protect children from the impact of armed conflict
and forced displacement, and ensure compliance with
international humanitarian and human rights law; (pending)
(c) Protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation,
including paedophelia, trafficking, and abduction;
(d) Take immediate and effective measures to eliminate
the worst forms of child labour as defined in International
Labour Organization Convention No. 182, and elaborate
and implement strategies for the elimination of child
labour that is contrary to accepted international standards;
(e) Improve the plight of millions of children who live
under especially difficult circumstances.
IV. Combating HIV/AIDS
(a) By 2003, establish time bound national targets
to achieve the internationally agreed global prevention
goal to reduce by 2005 HIV prevalence among young men
and women aged 15 to 24 in the most affected countries
by 25 per cent and by 25 per cent globally by 2010,
and intensify efforts to achieve these targets as well
as to challenge gender stereotypes and attitudes and
gender inequalities in relation to HIV/AIDS, encouraging
the active involvement of men and boys;
(b) By 2005, reduce the proportion of infants infected
with HIV by 20 per cent, and by 2010 reduce it by 50
per cent, by ensuring that 80 per cent of pregnant women
accessing antenatal care have information, counselling
and other HIV prevention services available to them,
increasing the availability of and by providing access
for HIV-infected women and babies to effective treatment
to reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV, as well
as through effective interventions for HIV-infected
women, including voluntary and confidential counselling
and testing, access to treatment, especially anti-retroviral
therapy and, where appropriate, breast milk substitutes
and the provision of a continuum of care;
(c) By 2003 develop and by 2005 implement national
policies and strategies to build and strengthen governmental,
family and community capacities to provide a supportive
environment for orphans and girls and boys infected
and affected by HIV/AIDS, including by providing appropriate
counselling and psychosocial support, ensuring their
enrolment in school and access to shelter, good nutrition,
health and social services on an equal basis with other
children, and protecting orphans and vulnerable children
from all forms of abuse, violence, exploitation, discrimination,
trafficking and loss of inheritance.
***
For further information, please contact:
Liza Barrie,
UNICEF Media Chief, New York (212) 326-7593
Alfred Ironside,
UNICEF Media, New York (212) 326-7261
|
|
|
