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World leaders 'Say Yes' for children
From 8 to 10 May 2002, more than 7,000 people participated in the most
important international conference on children in more than a decade,
the Special Session of the UN General Assembly on Children, at which
the nations of the world committed themselves to a series of goals to
improve the situation of children and young people.
The Special Session was a landmark, the first such Session devoted
exclusively to children and the first to include them as official
delegates. It was convened to review progress since the World Summit
for Children in 1990 and re-energize global commitment to children's
rights.
About 70 Heads of State and/or Government, prime ministers or their
deputies, together with many high-ranking government delegations came
to New York to take part in the Session. Four governments had youth
representatives address the General Assembly on behalf of their
respective countries (the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Togo).
In addition, the Special Session benefited greatly from an
extraordinary array of leaders from civil society, including
non-governmental organizations, cultural, academic, business and
religious groups, and eminent personalities such as Nelson Mandela and
Bill Gates, Jr.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in his opening statement to the
General Assembly, addressed the children of the world. "We, the
grown-ups, have failed you deplorably…" he said, adding, "One in three
of you has suffered from malnutrition before you turned five years old.
One in four of you has not been immunized against any disease. Almost
one in five of you is not attending school…. We, the grown-ups, must
reverse this list of failures."
Carol Bellamy, UNICEF Executive Director, echoed her concern for the
need to accelerate progress for children. "If we want to overcome
poverty and the instability it breeds, we must start by investing in
our young people," she said. "I implore national leaders to seriously
examine their records on children. Are you getting all your children
into the classroom? Are you protecting all your children against
disease? Are they safe from abuse, exploitation and violence?
Unfortunately, we already know the answers. We know we have work to do."
An impressive number of government representatives - 187 - took the
floor during the plenary debate at the General Assembly. Leaders took
stock of progress for children made since the 1990 World Summit for
Children. And most concurred with the conclusions of the
Secretary-General in his end-decade report, We the Children, which
stated that much work had been accomplished but much still remained to
do. Speakers said they saw the Special Session as a sign of hope and
the outcome document as a pledge by the international community to act
together to address pressing issues and build a world fit for children,
supporting a new set of goals established by participants at the
Special Session.
-www.unicef.org
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