Say Yes, Spring 2002: Meeting for Children
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan addresses delegates at the opening of the United Nations Special Session on Children (UNSSC), 8th of May, 2002.
Photograph by Susan Markisz © UNICEF 2002
This is a special Spring for children’s rights all around the world. For the three days between the 8th and 10th of May, 2002, world leaders will convene in New York for the UNSSC. Attention will focus on young people at this significant event as heads of state and government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), children’s rights activists and of course children themselves seek to make the world a better, safer place for children.
The UNSSC will be opened by Mr Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations. The primary objectives will be to review what has been achieved for children in the past ten years and to set new goals for the forthcoming decade.
Over a decade ago, world leaders put children’s issues on the political agenda and the human rights map. This was in 1990, on the occasion of the World Summit for Children (WSC) -- an unprecedented event on behalf of children. The WSC adopted an Action Plan with a clear timetable in order to realise precise goals and ensure the health and security of the world’s children. At the time, a campaign was launched for the ratification and implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) to further the objectives of the Action Plan.
This spring, the UNSSC will provide the opportunity to see how governments have managed to live up to these commitments.
The Action Plan in 1990 set out to reduce infant and maternal mortality rates, preventable diseases, illiteracy and malnutrition, emphasising the need for children’s access to basic education, safe drinking water, healthy food, sanitary conditions and protection from abuse, violence and war.
A great deal of progress has been made since then: in 125 countries, 80% of a single generation of children have been immunised against common childhood diseases such as measles and tetanus. In 1999 alone, more than two thirds of the world’s children under the age of five -- four hundred and seventy million -- were immunised against polio. Some twelve million children are no longer at risk of mental disabilities caused by an iodine deficient diet.
More children are in school today than at any other time in history. Children have formed their own parliaments and peace movements. Laws reflecting the CRC have been enacted and enforced in many countries.
The entire community of nations acknowledged as much when they embraced the CRC over a decade ago and vowed to fulfil the goals of the WSC.
These obligations must be met not just by governments but by all of us and the UNSSC will reveal how far we have progressed towards our common goal.
There are more details about the supporting events preceding the UNSSC in this issue. Read more about what happened at the UNSSC in the July, 2002 issue of Say Yes.
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