Sixty-first General Assembly

Plenary

70^th Meeting (AM)

GENERAL ASSEMBLY COMMEMORATES SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF United Nations CHILDREN’S FUND

As the General Assembly held an informal segment of a special meeting to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the operation of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today, a 17-year old youth representative observed how a girl’s club, launched in 2000 with the support of UNICEF and partners, had changed a garbage-littered city slum into a pleasant-smelling town, where children could play outdoors, enabling “a small group of girls from Bangladesh to realize how powerful they could be”.

Doly Akter told the gathering that the slum district of Rupnagar in Dhaka had a population of approximately 2,000 and had been like many such neighbourhoods in her city, with narrow lanes cluttered by rotting garbage and the smell of overflowing drains everywhere.  She then started the club under a project Bangladesh had initiated with UNICEF, the Environmental Sanitation, Hygiene and Water Supply in Urban Slums and Fringes project.  She and another dozen girls had gone door to door to teach neighbours about the link between cleanliness and health, convincing people to wash their hands and use proper latrines.

Encouraged by that success, she said that the club had teamed up with the local Urban Development Centre to influence parents in their attitudes towards girls.  As a result, girls were now finishing primary school with hopes of continuing their studies.  They were marrying later than the 17 years of age that had been the custom in their mothers’ childhood.  Married women no longer had to ask permission from their husbands to leave the house and they were free to walk around the neighbourhood.  If those girls could achieve so much in such a short time, how much more could be done for children and families everywhere? she asked.

The commemorative meeting was attended by former UNICEF Executive Director, Carol Bellamy, who stepped down in January 2005 after serving in her post for the maximum allowable 10 years.  Also present were UNICEF goodwill Ambassador Vanessa Redgrave and her son, Carlo Nero, as well as a host of other UNICEF dignitaries and children from throughout the world.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a message delivered by Chen Jian, Under-Secretary-General for General Assembly Affairs and Conference Services, said he had seen UNICEF colleagues do great things for children on all continents and against all odds during his 10 years as Secretary-General.  They had given a voice to the children who needed it most.  They had protected children, helped them survive and develop.  Thanks in large part to UNICEF, the world understood that building a better future began with children, the world’s youngest citizens, with ensuring they were healthy, educated, safe and loved.

When given the best possible start in life, he stressed, children could grow up to realize their greatest potential as adults.  Dedicated to providing that gateway to a better future, he added, UNICEF, and its work to realize the rights of all children, was at the heart of efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals.

In her address, current Executive Director Ann Veneman said the youth delegate of Bangladesh was a good example of the positive impact derived from empowering girls, especially through education.  The Assembly meeting was, thus, not merely a celebration of past successes, but a point from which momentum would be used for the work that remained to be done.

At its founding in 1946, after the Second World War, she continued, UNICEF had been largely involved in delivering emergency assistance to children in need.  Now it focused on millions of children all over the world whose lives were affected by poverty, disease, conflict and emergencies.  “The world has seen more gains against poverty and more progress for children in the last 60 years than in the previous 500”, she said.

She detailed advances in health, education, nutrition and gender equality, but said much still needed to be done in those same areas, due largely to poverty, exploitation and natural calamities.  Millions of vulnerable children were dependent on the collective action of the international community.  They were at the heart of the Millennium Development Goals.

Andrei Depkiunas, President of the UNICEF Executive Board, said UNICEF was a lifeline for many millions of children,.  The Assembly had started that pipeline 60 years ago and it was kept alive and strong since then by big and small government donors, thousands of private sector contributors and individual good Samaritans, who wanted to save the future; “our children”.

“UNICEF is in good shape”, he said, both organizationally and logistically, as well as in terms of personnel.  Both at headquarters and in the field, UNICEF boldly and responsibly assumed the leadership among its partners when called for by the challenge of war, hunger and deprivation.  Part of that position was due to the name.  The bigger part was due to the strenuous and dedicated work of the staff.

Speaking on behalf of the host country, Richard Miller of the United States said he recalled “trick-or-treating” for UNICEF as a child and that people would give a donation along with candy.  UNICEF was the most well-known United Nations body in his country and the outcome of its work was well-known, including lower child mortality, better health for children and mothers, better education and greater effectiveness in emergencies.

He said he was proud that the United States was the leading contributor to UNICEF, a very special organization.  In a world where conflict was too often the norm, “nothing brings us together like the welfare of our children”, he added.

Delivering a message on behalf of Assembly President Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, Assembly Vice-President Mirjana Mladineo said that the name “UNICEF” had always been synonymous with action.  That was true from UNICEF’s early relief work with children affected by war; through its campaigns against disease and for childen’s welfare in the 1950s through 1970s; the child survival and development revolution of the 1980s; child rights advocacy in the 1990s and near universal ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and finally, its work today to achieve results for children through the Millennium Development goals.

She said that UNICEF had been closely involved in the historic 1990 World Summit for Children and had been the driving force behind the 2002 Assembly special session on children, which culminated in a declaration and plan for action entitled “A World Fit for Children”.  The Assembly would review progress towards achievement of those goals in 2007.  “Let us deliver on the promises made in this very hall to the children of the world”, she urged.

Also speaking today were representatives of different regions.  Speaking on behalf of African States, Abani Aboubacar Ibraim (Niger), said UNICEF was the premier organization for children that afforded them protection and a realization of their rights, by focusing on health, education and protection of fundamental human rights.  Calling for the plague of child soldiers to be eradicated everywhere in the world, he said every child deserved a good start in life.  Capacity-building efforts should be dedicated towards that end.  It should be kept in mind that education was more than just learning; it was a “life preserver”, particularly for girls.

Hamidon Ali ( Malaysia) spoke on behalf of Asian States and said that UNICEF was reaching out in more ways than founders could have imagined, because of the media.  UNICEF was able to reach children everywhere with useful information to improve their lives.

Recalling that the first UNICEF National Committee in Europe had been established in the former Yugoslavia, Amir Muharemi ( Croatia) spoke on behalf of the Eastern European Group, to say UNICEF’s work in the region had been invaluable, whether in providing medicines or safe water or starting nutrition programmes.  No other region of the world had gone through the changes his region had seen.  In the transition period, children continued to suffer unduly.  As primary needs were able to be met by Governments, UNICEF was able to focus on specifically vulnerable children; those who were disabled; among the poorest; those with HIV/AIDS or victims of trafficking.

Speaking on behalf of the Latin American and Caribbean States, Ruth Elizabeth Rouse ( Grenada) recalled that the first UNICEF office in the region had opened in 1948.  UNICEF offices were now open in twenty-four countries, each developing activities to promote the well-being and future of the region.  UNICEF also supported a regional exchange programme, aimed at creating a safe environment for children, through creative activities such as sports and arts to supplant negative influences towards violence and crime.

Finally, Arjan Paul Hamburger ( Netherlands) spoke for Western Europe and other States and recalled that Europe itself had been needy at the time of the founding of UNICEF.  He also recalled that UNICEF’s first executive director had made it a condition of his service that UNICEF equally support the children of both vanquished and victorious countries.  UNICEF’s history, he said, was closely linked to Europe’s present prosperity and was the best example that children owned the future.  Sixty years ago, European children had needed UNICEF and States had come to the rescue.  Now the children of Europe had grown up to help UNICEF give aid to millions of others.

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For information media • not an official record