Promises to keep

The United Nations General Assembly's Special Session on Children, held in New York between 8 and 10 May 2002, was the first such session devoted purely to children and young people.

© UNICEF/HQ02-0075/Markisz

The 404 Special Session Delegates in the UN General Assembly, New York, USA.

Perhaps even more importantly, young people, serving as official delegates,  had the chance to speak for themselves. This was the first time that they had been able to tell world leaders what they wanted, rather than be told what was good for them.

The main aim of the session was to come up with a plan to better the world's record in improving the situation of children. It was also about taking steps to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

The resulting plan, called A World Fit for Children, lays down 10 essential principles for creating a world in which all your rights are respected. These principles had first been developed for the 'Say Yes for Children' campaign, part of the Global Movement for Children, which UNICEF and other leading children's organizations had launched in the build-up to the Special Session.

"Children are the change-makers." Sanjog Thakuri, 16, from Nepal, speaking at the Children's Forum, May 2002

The 10 principles are:

1. Leave no child out.
2. Put children first.
3. Care for every child.
4. Fight HIV/AIDS.
5. Stop harming and exploiting children.
6. Listen to children.
7. Educate every child.
8. Protect children from war.
9. Protect the earth for children.
10. Fight poverty: invest in children.

The 'Say Yes for Children' campaign collected more than 94 million pledges supporting these principles – a Guinness World Record.

Action plan

The plan agreed to at the Special Session—A World Fit for Children—also sets priorities for action and interim targets for meeting the Millennium Development Goals.

The action plan covers the following areas:

• Promoting healthy lives. Specific promises include reducing death rates for infants, children under five years old and women, and improving access to clean water. There is also a range of other commitments to support the healthy development of children and young people.
• Providing quality education. Specific promises include free primary education for all children (and for 90 per cent by 2010) and equal access to education for girls.
• Protecting children against abuse, exploitation and violence. These measures are designed to protect  children from all forms of harm including sexual abuse, trafficking (selling and exploiting children), neglect, the consequences of war, and the worst forms of child labour.
• Fighting HIV/AIDS. Promises include reducing HIV infection among young people by 25 per cent – and among infants by 50 per cent – by 2010.

Paying up

Finally, A World Fit for Children says that its aims are 'clearly affordable'. But it also stresses that richer countries must help poorer ones. Specifically, it urges richer countries to donate 0.7 per cent of their GNP (gross national product – the total value of all the goods and services a country produces). More money should be raised from cuts to military spending and better use of current resources. A World Fit for Children also asks that more money be spent on basic social services including education, health care, access to safe water, sanitation and social protection—especially for children.

Keeping them on their toes

Individual countries have the main responsibility for making sure all this happens, and government leaders agreed to make detailed national and regional action plans by the end of 2003. UNICEF has the job of checking progress – see the next page, Progress Report, to find out more about this.

Answer the following question to find out about progress since the Special Session. The correct answer is in the next page.

A year later, how many countries had taken measures to follow up commitments made in the Special Session?

Just over 100
Just over 50