Press Centre 2003/05/08: Children’s Rights

A year later, children are still waiting for leaders to deliver

Goals agreed to by all nations in May 2002 are slow to take hold

New York, 8th May 2003 -- Goals agreed to at a United Nations summit in May of 2002 have barely begun to be implemented by the nations of the world, UNICEF reported today, saying that only half of the world’s governments had even taken the first step of developing a plan of action for children in their countries.

UNICEF said that 105 nations had so far outlined how they intend to improve conditions for children, with nearly ninety countries still due to create or modify their action plans by the end of 2003, in keeping with the agreed timetable.

Stating clearly and publicly what each government will do to improve the lives of children is an important step toward real progress, said Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF.

I’m enormously pleased that already so many nations have set forward their plans. We cannot reach the goals we’ve set for 2005, 2010, or 2015 without saying up front exactly what each of us plans to do. That’s accountability, and I applaud the governments who have fulfilled this first commitment.

Bellamy said resources and attention that should have gone to issues over the past year had instead been devoted to crisis and war:

The children of Iraq are important, but are 2.1 billion children in this world, half of them living in abject poverty, 150 million who are malnourished, 120 million who never go to school, and 11 million who die from totally preventable causes every year. These are the things that governments must focus on with consistency and rigour.

The first United Nations Special Session on Children (UNSSC) took place in New York from May 8-10, 2002. Government delegations from every nation, including some 70 heads of state and almost 200, agreed to a time-bound set of goals intended to:

• improve children’s health and survival;
• provide them with a quality education;
• reverse the impact of HIV/AIDS on their lives;
• and protect them from exploitation and violence.

Bellamy said it was unrealistic to show major progress in these areas in just the span of one year, but she emphasised that concrete action is necessary in order to reach the goals -- especially the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), most of which are set for 2015 with interim goals along the way.

UNICEF also highlighted two national initiatives over the past year that illustrate how rapid change can be when leaders are fully committed to investing in children.

UNICEF cited the case of Kenya, where the government pledged to free education to all the nation’s children as one of its first initiatives in January 2003. All kinds of school fees were abolished, and school registration soared. An additional 1.5 million children showed up for the first day of school. UNICEF continues to support Kenya in its efforts to improve its education system to ensure that children remain in school and receive a quality education that can help lift them out of poverty.

UNICEF also cited the case of Afghanistan, which despite enormous challenges also made huge strides in getting children in school, especially girls. From the first day of school in March 2002, when nearly two million children turned up in classrooms, to the new school year that kicked off in March, Afghanistan has seen school attendance double, with huge numbers of girls attending for the first time in years.

The only way to make real change for children is through bold strokes, Bellamy said.

A bold stroke in Kenya’s case was the stroke of a pen eliminating school fees. In Afghanistan it was a stroke of inspiration to make rebuilding education the country’s first major priority. The more bold strokes we make for children, the more decent and prosperous our societies will become. That’s a proven fact.

Bellamy cited other improvements for children in the past year:

• Increase in birth registration in about fifty countries. Children registered at birth helps children realise their rights to a name, nationality, and access to social services.
• 120,000 child deaths averted due to increased measles immunisation. The Measles Initiative, led by UNICEF, WHO, The American Red Cross, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has immunised eighty-five million children since 2001.
• A polio-free Europe. A notable milestone in the rapidly gathering campaign to eradicate polio from the earth. Only seven countries remain polio endemic.

A World Fit for Children

The real work of implementing the goals set at the UNSSC has just begun, Bellamy noted:

The progress made in the past twelve months is a good start, but tremendous challenges lie ahead. All stakeholders -- governments, civil society and NGOs, families and children, and the international community -- need to move further ahead from words to deeds, from plans and policies to actions and results.

UNICEF also listed several immediate actions to be taken by all governments in keeping with their commitment toward a world fit for children.

• All countries should establish or strengthen appropriate national bodies for the protection of children. National budgets should be reviewed to allocate at least 20% to basic social services which benefit children.
• Developed countries are encouraged to raise their ODA levels to reach the target of 0.7% of their GNP for overall ODA and to allocate at least 20% of ODA to basic social services.
• All countries should establish or strengthen monitoring at national and sub-national levels to assess progress towards the goals and targets.
• All countries should conduct periodic reviews of progress at national and sub-national levels to address obstacles and to accelerate progress.

If current trends continue, it is unlikely the world will achieve the Millennium Development Goals, Bellamy argued:

But if we invest in children now, especially using the high-effective, low-cost investments that we already know work, we’ll give ourselves a fighting chance to achieve our goals. They are goals worth achieving. For the sake of children, let’s redouble our efforts to reach them.

For further information, please contact:

Sema Hosta, UNICEF Turkey:
(+90) 312 454 10 00, Cell: 533 622 83 46

Alfred Ironside, UNICEF New York:
(1-212) 326-7261

Jehane Sedky-Lavandero, UNICEF Media, New York:
(1-212) 326-7269

Mohammad Jalloh, UNICEF Media, New York:
(1-212) 326-7516

Read more about the United Nations MDGs online from UN Headquarters. The full text of We are the Children of the World, the outcome document of the Children’s Forum at the UNSSC was published in the July 2002 issue of Say Yes. Read more about the first anniversary of the UNSSC online from UNICEF Headquarters.

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