Say Yes, February 2002: Say YES! for Children

The Global Movement for Children (GMFC) seeks to ensure that our governments keep the promises made on our behalf by involving non-governmental organisations, public and private sectors, the media and, of course, children and young people themselves with Say Yes for Children.

We are all of us being asked to examine how we think about children and the way we treat them. By being active, personal ambassadors for children we can work together to change the World.

The GMFC seeks to change the World with children by involving … each and every one of us. Every citizen of every nation. Every public and private entity. Every national leader. Every child and every adolescent.

The torch was lit at the CEE/CIS regional launching on the 23rd of April last year, just two days before the global launch of the campaign, when more than six thousand people pledged to Say Yes for Children in one voice. Visiting İstanbul for the International Children's Festival celebrations, Mrs Nane Annan, the wife of the United Nations Secretary-General read the ten imperatives to the assembly and invited all present to ‘Say Yes’ along with her.

Say Yes for Children promotes a ten-point plan, itemised on the Pledge form which prioritise actions to improve conditions and ensure the well-being of children and young people. Based on the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the 1990 World Summit for Children (WSC), the ten points run the gamut of poverty, ignorance, discrimination, labour and exploitation, life-threatening diseases and those environmental factors which hinder the growth and development of children.

The pledges were to be submitted to the United Nations Special Session on Children (UNSSC) which was originally scheduled for the 18th - 20th of September. However, owing to the unfortunate events of September 11th, the UNSSC was deferred until May 2002. To give the campaign further momentum, Say Yes for Children was relaunched at the Children’s Forum between the 19th and 20th of November. The Children’s Forum is traditionally held on November 20th to mark the day when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959 and the CRC in 1989.

The CRC presented an influential and coherent vision of children’s rights and how society should provide for those rights. By asking governments to sign their agreement to the terms of a contract and, thereafter, to be held accountable for them, the CRC provided a firm base from which children and adolescents have been able to exercise their right to be listened to and to shape the World.

The GMFC has proven to be an excellent catalyst for inter-sectoral collaboration between governmental and non-governmental organisations. So much so, in fact, that Turkey has promised over ten million pledges to the campaign.

The Social Services and Child Protection Agency (SHÇEK) and UNICEF held a meeting between agencies such as the Ministries of Education, of Labour, of Justice, of Youth and of Health and the Higher Education Council in order to use the service capacity of the public sector in support of the campaign.

Your pledge and the pledges of the millions of others participating worldwide will be taken to the UNSSC at the United Nations General Assembly in May.

Until then, an extensive network of individuals and organisations will be at work in villages, towns and neighbourhoods in a grass roots campaign to reach millions of people and mobilise their support for those issues which affect the daily life and future of the child from one moment to the next.

We are all of us being asked to examine the way we think about children and how we treat them. By becoming active, personal ambassadors for children we can work with them to change the world.

By posing the question Would each one of us be willing to pledge our time and efforts to enhance the well-being of the World’s children?, Say Yes for Children will prepare the World to accept the challenge and take us all closer to a better life for today’s children and for future generations.

Visit the GMFC web site and find out more about Say Yes for Children.

Find out more about the UNSSC in the Spring 2002 and July 2002 issues of Say Yes.

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The Minister Responsible for Children and Women and the Ministry of the Interior held a press conference to publicise Say Yes for Children. They delivered signatures collected by the Child Police to the Minister of State and asked him to deliver them to the United Nations Special Session on Children (UNSSC).