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.

Jehanzeb's Diary: Monday 6 May 2002

The venue for the Forum was changed to the Manhattan Center. Our buses left, with only children, from the United Nations building at 8:15 a.m. The second day began with an energizer and then we were given a task - to choose a rapporteur from each group. From our group of South Asia, Arshela Amir Ali was selected as the rapporteur. In this way, 17 rapporteurs were chosen, from which, we were told, two will be selected on the third day to represent the Children's Forum at the UN Special Session on Children.

After selection of rapporteurs, the children were divided into area groups on the basis of the topic we wished to talk about. For example, I chose 'education' because my work in my country is to motivate parents to educate their children, especially girls.

In their groups, the children discussed the problems in their topic area and recommended solutions. Conclusions were in the form of presentations by each group on their selected topic. I learnt that children from all over the world had many problems, some of them common to many of us.

Until now, I was only aware of the problems of the children of my community, but today for the first time I became aware of the problems of children from all over the world. This sharing and awareness brought us closer to each other and also made us feel compassionately for others. It also made me feel today that I should not only stand up for the rights of my country's children, but also for the rights of all children of the world. We are one!

The solutions that came from the children for their problems were really brilliant and I believe that even the world leaders cannot think of solutions in the manner which we, the children, can.

I am happy that we were given this chance to come together. If we were not given this opportunity, we would not be able to express our views and feelings and come up with joint solutions in which the voices of all children are present.

UNICEF supports the right of every child to be heard, and therefore provides this opportunity for children to voice their views and impressions of the United Nations Special Session on Children. The report above reflects the opinions of an individual child delegate to the Special Session and does not represent the policies or positions of UNICEF.