From 8 to
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
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." (photo: UNICEF/Susan Markisz)
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.
Links
The official website for
the Special Session.
Address of the youth
representative of the
Bangladesh
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