PREPARATORY COMMITTEE FOR 2001 SPECIAL ASSEMBLY SESSION ON FOLLOW-UP TO WORLD SUMMIT FOR CHILDREN BEGINS WORK FOR 7-8 FEBRUARY SESSION

Press Release
HR/4459

PREPARATORY COMMITTEE FOR 2001 SPECIAL ASSEMBLY SESSION ON FOLLOW-UP TO WORLD SUMMIT FOR CHILDREN BEGINS WORK FOR 7-8 FEBRUARY SESSION

So many children were being condemned to needless death, stunted growth, unfulfilled potential and heinous exploitation that any opportunity to reverse the situation must not be missed, the Preparatory Committee for the 2001 special session of the General Assembly for Follow-up to the World Summit for Children was told this morning.

Opening the Committee’s two-day organizational session, General Assembly President Theo-Ben Gurirab said that despite the heroic efforts of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and its specialized agencies, the international community still had to fulfil the objective of saving succeeding generations. The world had a historic opportunity and a profound obligation to make the special session a turning point.

Also addressing the Committee, the Executive Director of UNICEF, Carol Bellamy, said that there was widespread recognition that every child had “a whole galaxy of fundamental rights”. The progress achieved in the 10 years since the World Summit for Children would have been impossible without the convergence of strategy, resources and action promoted by the United Nations. Now, it was necessary to expand and strengthen the vital partnerships between governments, donors, international institutions and civil society at every level, laying the foundation for a future global agenda for children.

Also this morning, the Preparatory Committee elected, by acclamation, Patricia Durrant (Jamaica) as its Chairperson; and Madina Ly-Tall (Mali) -- from the Group of African States, Anwarul Karim Chowdhury (Bangladesh) -– from the Group of Asian States, and Hanns Schumacher (Germany) -- from the Group of Western European and other States , as its Vice-Chairmen.

The Vice-Chairman from the Group of Eastern European States will be elected following consultations among the members of that Group. One of the elected Vice-Chairmen will be designated Rapporteur of the Committee following consultations within the Bureau.

Also this morning, the Preparatory Committee adopted its provisional agenda and programme of work and opened the general debate on the proposals in

Preparatory Committee - 1a - Press Release HR/4459 1st Meeting (AM) 7 February 2000

preparation for the special session. The report of the Secretary-General on that matter was introduced by Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF Karen Sham Poo.

Speaking on behalf of the European Union and associated States, the representative of Portugal identified some key topics to be addressed by the special session and said that his delegation strongly supported a “rights-based approach” to protecting the world’s children, which stipulated that the situation of children should not only be addressed in terms of need, but in terms of the obligation of the international community to respond to their rights.

Also speaking in the debate was the representative of the United States. The Committee’s Chairperson also made a statement.

The Preparatory Committee will continue its organizational session at 3 p.m. this afternoon.

Committee Work Programme

The Preparatory Committee for the 2001 special session of the General Assembly for follow-up to the World Summit for Children met this morning to begin its organizational session, which will be held at Headquarters from 7 to 8 February. [For background on the session, see Press Release HR/4458 of 4 February.]

Statement by Assembly President

THEO-BEN GURIRAB (Namibia), President of the General Assembly, said that the United Nations had been founded with the noble objective of saving succeeding generations from the scourge of war, but every year millions of children died and millions more were disabled from causes that were largely preventable. Despite the heroic efforts of organizations like the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the many specialized agencies of the United Nations system, the international community still had a long way to go to fulfil its original objective.

“The holding of the World Summit for Children in 1990 and the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child 10 years ago were shining moments in the history of the United Nations”, he said. Much had been achieved to promote the well-being of children as a result of those landmark events. However, so many children were being condemned to needless death, stunted growth, unfulfilled potential and heinous exploitation, that any opportunity to reverse the situation must not be missed -- that was what made this proposed General Assembly special session so important.

He said that as Assembly President, he had taken every possible opportunity to highlight the plight of children and to alleviate their suffering as the highest priority for the United Nations. Chairing the General Assembly’s commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child had been one of his proudest moments. Namibia was a proud and active promoter of the cause of child rights and his presence this morning was a part of that special commitment.

While every such session of the General Assembly was “special” by definition, nothing was more special than the cause of children, he said. “We have a historic opportunity and a profound obligation to make this special session a turning point in the march of human civilization to save our younger generation”, he said. “Let us get to work right away -- the children of the world look to us for urgent action.”

Election of Officers

The Preparatory Committee then elected, by acclamation, Patricia Durrant (Jamaica) as its Chairperson.

The newly-elected Chairperson, Ms. DURRANT (Jamaica), recalled the unprecedented gathering of heads of State and government in 1990 at the World Summit for Children, as well as recent unprecedented actions taken by the Security Council to focus attention on the widespread and unacceptable violations of children’s rights in conflict situations, and on the tragedy of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. It was fair to say that, over the past 10 years, important inroads had been made in advancing the welfare of children. A reasonable number of the goals set at the World Summit had either been met, or would be met by the time of the special session.

Nevertheless, the reality of millions of children in the twenty-first century was sobering, and in many areas simply unacceptable, she said. The Committee’s work was both urgent and important. That work must be based on lessons learned in efforts to achieve agreed goals for children and must also chart a future global course of action.

Three of the four posts of Vice-Chairmen of the Preparatory Committee were nominated as follows: Madina Ly-Tall (Mali) -- from the Group of African States; Anwarul Karim Chowdhury (Bangladesh) -– from the Group of Asian States; and Hanns Schumacher of Germany -- from the Group of Western European and other States.

The Committee decided that consultations regarding the candidacy from the Group of Eastern European States would continue, and the Vice-Chairman from that Group would be elected at a later date.

The Committee then elected the three nominated candidates by acclamation.

It was announced that the Bureau would conduct consultations to elect one of the Vice-Chairmen to serve as the Committee’s Rapporteur.

Then the Committee saw a video, prepared by UNICEF, depicting the hardships encountered by children around the world and the possible means of overcoming them.

Statement by Executive Director of UNICEF

CAROL BELLAMY, Executive Director of UNICEF, said that a decade ago, leaders representing an unprecedented number of governments had vowed to put the best interest of children first. By adopting the Summit Declaration and the Programme of Action, 181 governments had committed themselves to protect the lives of children and to diminish their suffering; to promote the fullest development of their human potential; and to make them aware of their needs, rights and opportunities. The Summit was animated by the same spirit as the most acclaimed human rights instrument -– the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the principles of which continued to inspire the work of UNICEF.

Thanks to the Convention, there was now widespread recognition that every child had a whole galaxy of fundamental rights, she continued. It reflected a worldwide consensus that investing in children was the surest way to maximize the political, social and economic development of families, communities and countries. There had been unprecedented progress for child survival and development in the last 10 years. There were successes that would not have been possible without the convergence of strategy, resources and action that the United Nations and its agencies had promoted. They could not be achieved without the vital partnerships between governments, donors, the United Nations system and other international institutions and elements of civil society at every level.

Now, having crossed the threshold of the twenty-first century, it was necessary to expand and strengthen those partnerships, she said, laying the foundation for a future global agenda for children. That agenda needed to build on the progress since 1990 as it addressed the new and emerging challenges in the years ahead. For, despite the progress of the past decade, many hundreds of millions of children and women still endured staggering hardships. The review process that would lead to the special session had grown out of the urgent need to assess how far the world had come -– and how much more must be done to ensure the well-being of all societies, by ensuring the rights of all children and women.

The Preparatory Committee then adopted its provisional agenda and provisional programme of work.

Preparation for Special Session

KARIN SHAM POO, Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF, introduced the Secretary-General’s report on the “Proposals on the preparatory process for the special session of the General Assembly for the follow-up to the World Summit for Children” (document A/AC.256/2). That report attempted to outline the status of preparations and the scope of the review by the Preparatory Committee, she said.

The review process would provide an overall assessment of the progress achieved and lessons learned, she said. It would also provide an analysis of the main factors that had inhibited progress and an overview of the remaining challenges. Finally, it would identify the key issues and recommendations for the future.

A central part of the review would take place at the national level, she continued. Crucial tasks at the national level would be to assess the current situation of children and women on a goal-by-goal basis, to organize reviews and policy discussions and to analyse the fundamental factors affecting the situations of children and women that had prevented further progress.

She said that important review processes were already in place at the regional level. An end-of-decade review was planned by the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and that organization had declared 2000-2010 as the decade of children’s rights. In Beijing, in early 2001, there would also be a ministerial consultation of Asia and the Pacific that would convene to assess regional progress. Those and other regional processes would assist in identifying overall trends and lessons learned, as well as constitute important platforms on which to affirm strong political commitment to children.

She said that in Jamaica, in October 2000, the fifth ministerial meeting on children and social policy would be convened to analyse progress towards the achievement of the goals. The Ibero-American Summit -- on the theme “Children and Adolescents” -- was to be held in Panama in November 2000. “Every day we are apprised of a new initiative being taken at the regional level”, she said, “the challenge of reflecting the outcomes of those regional processes in the process of review led by this Committee will be continuous.”

All international development agencies would be invited to participate in the preparations for the special session at national, regional and global levels, she said. As to the participation of civil society in the preparatory process, UNICEF was organizing a high-level international consultation with key representatives and experts from all regions to take place in New York, from 23 to 25 February. The main objective of that event would be to renew the dialogue between UNICEF and civil society organizations on the current issues pertaining to children and to jointly plan and strategize to ensure the broadest possible commitment to future actions for children over the next decade.

AL BARTLETT (United States) said the preparatory process would provide an opportunity to review the accomplishments and assess the new challenges facing children. While not representing all that should be done for children, the Summit had concentrated on the main issues. To support the process, his country had worked closely with UNICEF and provided resources for its work. It had conducted surveys to get reliable information on the challenges facing the children of the world.

He hoped that major challenges and successes would be identified, and that new strategies would be developed this year. It was necessary to identify the groups of children not yet reached by international efforts. The preparatory process must ensure continued action for the benefit of the children. The voices of the non-governmental organizations should also be heard. The major conferences of the 1990s, as well as the review process of the Summit for Children, could help governments to reaffirm their commitment to children and continue the important work for their benefit.

ANTONIO MONTEIRO (Portugal), speaking on behalf of the European Union and associated countries, said that it was high time for the international community to take stock of the implementation of the World Declaration and the Plan of Action on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children that had been adopted in 1990. He said that today’s session and its preparatory process must enable the Committee to undertake a thorough review of what had been accomplished since the approval of those landmark documents, and to examine “where we are still lagging behind”.

He strongly supported the “rights-based approach” to protecting the world’s children that had been set forth by the World Declaration and Plan of Action and actively promoted by UNICEF. This approach, which should be considered during the preparatory process, stipulated that the situation of children should not only be addressed in terms of need, but in terms of the obligation of the international community to respond to their rights.

He also said that the objective of this organizational session must ensure the establishment of a well-structured process that would allow the Committee to achieve a meaningful review of the national and regional implementation of the Plan of Action one decade into its adoption. While more would be learned about the overall assessment of the implementation of those goals and objectives when the Secretary-General presented his report on the review of the implementation of the World Declaration and Plan of Action early next year, the trends and ideas that would emerge during this special session would help the Committee enhance and strengthen its plan of action.

With this goal in mind, he suggested that the Committee’s first substantive session would greatly benefit from organizing round-tables and panel discussions featuring a “broad range of actors”, such as representatives from Member States, United Nations agencies, financial institutions, as well as non-governmental organizations and the research community. Some topics for those discussions might include lessons learned in health care and education in the 1990s; children in armed conflict; and children in a globalized world.

In order to help the Committee’s working methods proceed as smoothly as possible and to provide a guide throughout this preparatory process, he encouraged UNICEF to prepare a paper on the many relevant commitments to the agenda already achieved by other global conferences. In this regard, he welcomed the Economic and Social Council resolution on integrated and coordinated follow-up of global conferences, as well as the Council’s decision to have its coordination segment in 2000 devoted to this topic.

He also advocated the participation of the widest range of actors possible, particularly that of non-governmental organizations. “We should keep in mind their role in the advocacy and drafting process that led to the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child”, he said.

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