No Longer the Distant Subject
By Michelle Bologna, for the Chronicle

UNICEF Photo/Giacomo Pirozzi

In 1990, the world came to the United Nations to talk about its children. It was an unprecedented act. Never before had so many leaders gathered to discuss such an issue, no matter how pressing or egregious.

It was a compassionate act. Those with greatest power reached to take the hand of the defenceless and the innocent. It was a necessary act.

Just over 11 years ago, those with age and authority publicly recognized that lasting peace depends on the well-being of the generations to come and embraced their duty to ensure full health, safety and education for all young people, no matter where or to whom they were born.

Now, from 8 to 10 May 2002, UN Member States will reconvene in New York to discuss the current state of children. Although the UN General Assembly Special Session on Children (UNGASS) will loosely mirror the 1990 World Summit for Children, its focus appropriately has been altered to reflect both the character and zeitgeist of today’s world. The health and education issues that dominated the 1990 Summit, for instance, will still enjoy thorough consideration and debate, but will be done with the specific aim of discerning the inroads made on the goals set in the Plan of Action more than a decade ago. Heads of State, non-governmental organizations and children’s advocates, among others, will work to construct strategic solutions to the stalwart health challenges young people still face around the globe.

Indeed, there are many obstacles still to overcome. For instance, while 63 countries have reduced the mortality rate of children under five by the targeted 33 per cent, more than 10 million in this age group die each year from preventable diseases and/or malnutrition. The progression in education has been equally mixed since 1990. While more children are attending school than ever before, 100 million are still left out, 60 per cent of whom are girls. The draft outcome document of the Special Session - “A World Fit for Children” - is set to reaffirm the world community’s commitment to the goals of the 1990 Summit and, through the construction of benchmarks, recommit Member States to the gradual achievement of those objectives remaining to be met.

The primary focus of UNGASS, however, is the child’s integral role in maintaining global peace and stability. Given the recent terrorist attacks, this is hardly surprising. But it is also indicative of the growing global concern with children’s rights - a trend that commenced with the 1989 passing of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most widely accepted international human rights treaty in history. Indeed, the international community’s growing awareness of the nuances of children’s rights, as well as the corresponding ways in which children are exploited and abused, have propelled the United Nations to take increasing action on behalf of the world’s children.

In 1999, for example, the Security Council broke its regional focus for the first time to debate the more sweeping global issue of children and armed conflict. Recognizing the great security risk child soldiers present to the world community, the Council passed resolutions 1261 (1999), 1314 (2000), and 1379 (2001), which proclaim the international community’s condemnation of the use of child soldiers, provide a zone of protection for children caught in war zones, and ensure that Member States actively monitor the industries (small arms and diamond trades) known to prolong wars and harm the young. The draft document slated to be considered at UNGASS in May continues to acknowledge the role of children in global upheaval by devoting an unprecedented level of attention to protecting the young from involvement in armed conflict, the labour pool and the sex trade. This is a striking difference from the outcome paper of the 1990 Summit, which condensed child protection issues into one short paragraph.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic, also briefly mentioned in the 1990 document, is now one of four main themes to be discussed at UNGASS. As the total number of children orphaned before the age of 15 is estimated to be as high as 13 million (and is forecast to more than double by the year 2010), this realignment of the agenda is not unwarranted. Indeed, the education of thousands of children worldwide is being interrupted by the widespread deaths of teachers and other mentors. The incidence of HIV/AIDS exponentially increases other violations of children, as those who lack both parental guidance and education are easily recruited into armies that further destabilize their respective regions. It has been noted that violent regimes of Sierra Leone and Liberia were achieved with armies of child soldiers. The Security Council was so moved by the threat that HIV/AIDS poses that it held its first-ever meeting surrounding the epidemic in January 2000. Indeed, it is widely documented that AIDS kills more people than wars. In 1998 in sub-Saharan Africa, 200,000 people died as a result of war, while the number of deaths from AIDS was ten times greater.

Although it is clear that global challenges have come to bear on the agenda of the upcoming UNGASS, the participation of child delegates indicates a positive and more empowering shift of the world’s approach towards children. Young people will no longer be the distant subject of debate, nor were they kept out of the preparatory processes leading up to the Special Session. Indeed, 200 child delegates were an instrumental component of the third Preparatory Committee last summer and actively presented their opinions on what should be emphasized and contained in the draft outcome document. During the Session, child delegates will speak at the plenary of the General Assembly and deliver the opening remarks at round tables of world leaders on the future course of action to be taken on behalf of children worldwide. These round tables, co-chaired by two heads of State or Government, are committed to generating greater clarity and action in promoting healthy lives; providing quality education; protecting against exploitation, violence and abuse; combating HIV/AIDS; poverty and resource mobilization; and the establishment of partnerships.

UNGASS will also be preceded by a three-day Children’s Forum, where child delegates will have the chance to further flesh out issues in the draft document and formulate recommendations for presentation at the plenary. In recognition of their equal status and contribution to the outcome of the Special Session, young delegates will have their own meeting space and technical support throughout UNGASS and the Forum.

The outcome of the Say Yes for Children campaign will be another unique focal point of the Special Session. This worldwide campaign, which moved 51 million citizens of the world to speak out and stand up for children’s issues, propelled young and old alike to identify the most important issues in children’s rights today and commit themselves to safeguarding and ensuring them. The results of the campaign, gathered via the Internet and paper ballots, will be presented to Heads of State and Government by former South African President Nelson Mandela.

Links:
UNICEF: United Nations Special Session on Children
UNICEF: Say Yes for Children