Posted on 05/09/2002 3:38:09 PM PDT by It'salmosttolate
Thursday May 9, 12:42 AM
Girl speakers tell UN summit to build a world fit for children
For the first time in history, two teenage girls addressed the United Nations General Assembly, outlining a vision to free children from poverty, war and disease.
"We want a world fit for children, because a world fit for us is a world fit for everyone," 13-year-old Gabriela Azurdy Arrieta, from Bolivia, told senior officials from 180 countries including 70 heads of state or government on Wednesday.
She and Audrey Cheynut, 17, from Monaco, read a message from 300 child delegates to a three-day special session of the Assembly, called to assess progress made since the first UN summit on children, held in 1990.
The summit set targets for reducing child poverty, disease and illiteracy, but, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said: "We, the grown-ups, have failed you deplorably in upholding many of them."
He noted that one third of the world's children suffered malnutrition before the age of five, a quarter had not been immunized against disease, and almost a fifth were not in school.
"Far too many of you have seen violence that no child should ever see; all of you live under the threat of environmental degradation," Annan said, before declaring: "We, the grown-ups, must reverse this list of failures."
Children had a right to live safe from such threats, he went on, noting that these rights were included in the Millennium Declaration, adopted at the UN's summit of world leaders in 2000 and setting out ambitious goals for 2015.
Among those goals were to halve the number of people living on less than a dollar a day, to provide primary education for all, and to halt and reverse the spread of AIDS.
In their message, the child delegates identified routes towards reaching these and other targets.
The eradication of AIDS required education systems including HIV prevention programmes; free testing and counseling; freely available information about AIDS; and equal care for orphans and for children living with AIDS, they said.
They called for "anti-poverty committees that bring about transparency in expenditure and give attention to the needs of all children," together with "cancellation of the debt that impedes progress for children."
The message, written at a three-day children's forum that ended Tuesday, also called for access to "quality education that is free and compulsory" and for the active participation of children in decision-making "at all levels" on issues affecting them.
Annan noted that children had never before spoken at such a conference.
"I urge all the adults here to listen to them attentively," he said. "To work for a world fit for children, we must work with children."
The child delegates also called for an end to war, exploitation, abuse and violence against children.
"We are not the sources of problems; we are the resources that are needed to solve them," they declared.
On Tuesday, three other children, who had lived through wars in Bosnia, East Timor and Liberia, took part in a public Security Council debate on children in armed conflict, together with the director of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), Carol Bellamy.<
The UN itself is a setup...
Of course, they didn't say the "a" word, because that would just be too politically incorrect, doncha know.
American Policy Center on-line Declaration of Independence from the U.N.
Also, I recall that the un has one or more "contingency sites" located in other nations... let's banish them there--
"...and for the active participation of children in decision-making "at all levels" on issues affecting them.My children would like it too, if they had an input in every decision regarding them, but there are times and situations in which a child does not the ability or reasoning to choose the rational, safe choice. That's why there are parents.
This propaganda will spread all over the world FOR THE CHILDREN'S SAKE.
Besides, who listens to the U.N. and takes their policies as gospel truth? Pathetic, aren't they?
Kofi, the grow-ups are in the White House. All you kids at the UN go back and play with our money now, and try not to hurt anybody. Other than you already have, I mean.
Good for you, get out there and solve them kiddies! Oh, and get me a beer while your up!
Good to see the younger generation showing some initiative;-)
You got that right Kofi, and until you get that bloated, money wasting agency you call the UN under control, you will continue to fail them. You have thrown money at every problem, I know thats easy since it's not your money, but there are better ways to solve problems then to chanel money into Swiss bank accounts for despots.
I really believe that the UN has done far more damage then people realize. Either they fix it, or we should back out.
Don't worry. The UN is already run by children. Spoiled children. Just don't give them a gun in the form of an independent army. Then it becomes a bunch of dangerous, spoiled children.
They called for "anti-poverty committees that bring about transparency in expenditure"
Now why don't adults use language like that?
uh. never mind.....
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