Press Centre 2004/12/10: Child Protection

The State of the World’s Children 2005, Children Under Threat is launched in Turkey

This years report tackles the issues of poverty, armed conflict and HIV/AIDS under the theme of Children Under Threat

UNICEF’s flagship report, The State of the World’s Children was launched by Executive Director, Carol Bellamy, in London on the 9th of December.

This years report finds that more than a billion children in the developing world are growing up hungry, caught in the crossfire of armed conflict or living in communities that are decimated by HIV/AIDS. Putting the situation into perspective, the report points out that, of the world’s 2.1 billion children, 1.9 billion live in developing countries -- which means that the lives of over half of the developing world’s children are threatened one or more of these three factors.

Too many governments are making informed, deliberate choices that actually hurt childhood, said Bellamy, adding that:

Poverty doesn't come from nowhere. When half the world’s children are growing up hungry and unhealthy, when schools have become targets and whole villages emptied by AIDS, we’ve failed to deliver on the promise of childhood.

While the report does not claim that poverty, armed conflict and the spread of HIV/AIDS are not the only factors to affect childhood, it does argue strongly that they are among the most significant, and that they have profoundly damaging effects on a child’s chances of survival and development.

The report says that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), agreed to by the UN’s 191 member states in 2000, could be achieved at an annual cost of between 40 to 70 billion dolars. Global expenditure on armaments and defense last year amounted to 956 billion dollars.

Speaking about the report’s statistical findings at the press launch for the Turkish and English editions in Ankara, the UNICEF Country Representative in Turkey, Edmond McLoughney said:

These horrors are not accidental, they are the result of deliberate choices, which means that they can be prevented. Even poor countries can protect their children from the impact of poverty, war and disease if they decide to do so.

For a more than a billion children, the promises of childhood enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) would appear to have been forgotten. Their right to love, care and protection in a family environment -- the essentials of a healthy, happy childhood -- has been denied them. As parents of the future, these same children are at risk of denying their own children this right and so the threat to childhood is carried from one generation to the next.

McLoughney concluded by saying that:

The near-universal ratification of the CRC shows that the will to fulfil the rights of the world’s children exists. The resources to put that will into action are there in abundance and the targets outlined in the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) and A World Fit for Children are clear.

Achieving these targets will go a long way towards erasing these pernicious threats to the world’s children -- the foundation of the world’s future.

Mrs Emine Erdoğan, also speaking at the launch, said:

I believe that we cannot do enough for children -- and I must stress that -- the world in which we are living has unfortunately become ungenerous to our children.

A panel discussion of the issue ‘Childhood Under Threat in Turkey’ followed the launch. Mr Esat Sağcan, Director of the Ministry of Education General Directorate of Apprenticeships and Non-formal Education chaired the discussion which featured speeches by two girls and two boys.

View the State of the World’s Children report online or order printed copies from UNICEF Headquarters in New York.

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