"A World Fit for Children" adopted by the UN General Assembly
13/05/2002 - Negotiations had continued late into Friday night when the UN General Assembly finally adopted the outcome document "A World Fit for Children", thus concluding the UN Special Session on Children in New York. The document, which contains a Declaration and Plan of Action, builds on the lessons learned since the 1990 World Summit for Children and tackles emerging challenges faced by children. |
The outcome
The Session finally agreed on twenty-one goals to improve the lives of children worldwide. These include reducing infant mortality and malnutrition; developing early childhood development programmes and health care systems; improving the quality of education and increasing the number of children in school; protecting children from abuse, neglect, exploitation, violence, armed conflict, forced displacement and sexual exploitation; eliminating the worst forms of child labour; implementing measures to reduce HIV/AIDS and to support orphans and children infected and affected by the virus.
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are disappointed with some of the compromises governments made to reach an agreement on the heavily debated document. References to the Convention on the Rights of the Child have been considerably watered down compared to previous proposals. Governments also agreed to make only weak references to sexual and reproductive rights, without explicitly referring to the rights of adolescents to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health education, information and services. Other paragraphs that were dropped addressed the right to protection and humanitarian assistance for children affected by armed conflict.
A step forward
The Special Session constituted a step forward for child rights: the agreed goals place a strong emphasis on protecting children from abuse, violence and exploitation -issues that were virtually ignored in 1990.
The Session enabled children and young people to voice their concerns and to bring their issues to the attention of world leaders. "We are the children of the world, and despite our different backgrounds, we share a common reality. We are united by our struggle to make the world a better place for all. You call us the future, but we are also the present," states the message from the Children's Forum delivered to the UN General Assembly Special Session on Children by two child delegates.
In addition, more than 1,000 NGOs from around the world - including SOS Children's Villages - met in the framework of the Session to discuss and network at several events. Their contribution and impact on child well-being and the progress of children's rights cannot be denied.
The major challenge ahead is the follow-up and monitoring of the Session's outcome document, which will be translated into national plans of action, taking into account the different social, cultural, and economic realities. NGOs will play an important role in working with governments to develop these plans and to support their pledges in favour of children. These policies need to involve the children themselves. As the child delegates in the Children's Forum stated: "We are not the source of the problems, we are the resources that are needed to solve them. We are people and citizens of this world."