SOCHUM
Topic A:Promotion and Protection of the rights of children.
Historical Background:
Children's right is relatively a new concept comparing to human rights. Traditional view of children tended to consider them as an add-on of households for the parents. Children did not have much rights back then, everything depended on their parents, who exerted absolute control over their children. In the ancient times, no one ever thought of giving special protection to children. During Middle Age, children were already considered as “young adults”, some are married since young age. Although human rights were discussed in the 17th century, when Enlightenment challenged the old ideology and the idea of human rights began to be asserted, but it was not until the 19th and 20th century when the children's rights began to be considered.
The idea first appeared in France during the 19th century, when the French first thought to give children special protection, enabling the progressive development of “minor rights” In 1841, the laws started to protect children in their workplace. In 1881, French law included the right for education for children.
During the Industrial Revolution in the United States, children as young as six began to work in inhumane conditions, long working hours, and little pays. It was until the early 19th century that this exploitation began to attract opposition, and series of Factory Acts passed: working hours were reduced and limited for children, children younger than nine were not allowed to work, and factories are required to provide education for young apprentices. The Children's Right Movement began when the Orphan Train resulted in boys working as coal and factory workers, and girls as prostitutes or sweat shop worker.
At the beginning of the 20th century, France started to put children's protection in place, including protection in medical, social, and judicial fields. This kind of change started to spread across Europe after France's example. During the World War I, millions died and many more were orphaned during the war. The League of Nations (later known as the United Nations), then was formed after WWI, and started to give some kind of importance to children's rights concept, and try to protect the basic human right standard by elaborating a committee for child protection.
The League of Nations took actions by adopting the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1924, it was drafted by a British teacher Eglantyne Jebb, designed to put pressure on the post-war government to protect the children. This is also the first international treaty concerning children's right. Unfortunately, as fascism arises, the
Second World War began, with more children left homeless, orphaned, and other dire situation. Consequently, the UN Fund for Urgency for the Children is created in 1947, which later became known as UNICEF. From its inception, UNICEF focuses particularly on helping children victims of WW2, taking care mainly of European children. But in 1953 its mandate is enlarged to a truly international scope and its actions expanded to developing countries. In 1959 the United Nations General Assembly adopted a second Declaration of the Rights of the Child. Meanwhile the United Nations Human Rights Commission group started to work on the draft of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, also known as CRC, but it was not until 1989 that the work of CRC was completed and adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child is the text in relation to human rights which has been the most rapidly adopted. This text becomes an international treaty and enters in force on September 2, 1990, after being ratified by 20 states. The Organization for African Unity adopts the African Charter for the Rights and Welfare of the Child on July 11, 1990. The Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention is adopted on June 17, 1999.
In May 2000, the optional protocol to the International Charter of the Child Rights regarding the participation of children in armed conflicts is ratified. It entered into force in 2002. This text prohibits minors taking part in armed conflicts. As of today, the International Charter of the Child Rights has been signed by 190 states of 192, even though there are a few reservations concerning certain parts of the text. Only the US and Somalia have signed but not ratified. Today, its idea and its forceful character are almost universally accepted. However, its application could still be improved and the transformation of words into acts remains to be done.
Past UN actions
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
UNICEF was founded by United Nations General Assembly in 1946, in order to provide food, clothing and health care to those European children who suffered from famine and disease after WWⅡ. In 1953, UNICEF became permanent part of the UN system. The UNICEF was than awarded the 1965 Nobel Peace Price “for the promotion of brotherhood among nations.” UNICEF is active in more than 190 countries and territories through country programs and National Committees. The main function of UNICEF is to provide long-term humanitarian and developmental assistance to children and mothers in developing countries; it also upholds the Convention on the Rights of the Child and works for the Millennium Development Goals. Governments contribute two thirds of the organization's resources; corporations, civil society organizations and more than 6 million individual donors worldwide contribute the rest through the National Committees. The midterm strategic plan from 2006~ 2013 focus on five areas, which are:
* Young child survival and development
* Basic education and gender equality
* HIV/AIDS
* Child protection from violence, exploitation and abuse
* Policy advocacy and partnerships for children's rights
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
In 1959, the General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, which defines children’s rights to protection, education, health care, shelter and good nutrition. On 20 November 1989, the 30th anniversary of the declaration of the Rights of the Child, Convention on the Rights of Child (abbreviated as the CRC, CROC or UNCRC) was adopted by the General Assembly, and soon came into force in 1990, which is the first legally binding international instrument to incorporate the full range of human rights—civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights. It spells out the basic human rights that children everywhere should have the right to survival; to develop to the fullest; to protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitation; and to participate fully in family, cultural and social life. The four core principles of the Convention are non-discrimination; devotion to the best interests of the child; the right to life, survival and development; and respect for the views of the child. Until now, there are 193 parties in CRC including all UN member states except Somalia, South Sudan and the United States. Countries ratified or acceded the CRC have committed themselves to protecting and ensuring children's rights and they have agreed to hold themselves accountable for this commitment before the international community.
World Summit of Children
The largest-ever gathering led by 71 heads of State and Government and 88 other senior officials was held in 1990, promised to protect children and to diminish their suffering; to promote the fullest development of the human potential of every child; and to make them aware of their needs, their rights and their opportunities. The main result of the World Summit was the joint signing of a World Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children and a Plan of Action comprising a detailed set of child-related human development goals for the year 2000. The summit has successfully helped move child rights to a place high on the world's agenda. The Special Session is an important follow-up to the 1990 World Summit.
Special Session on Children
In 2002, a landmark Special Session of the UN General Assembly was convened to review progress since the World Summit for Children in 1990 and re-energize global commitment to children's rights. There were several clear progresses made which are:
* 155 countries have adopted National Programs of Action to move the agenda for children forward.
* 63 countries have achieved the targeted one-third reduction in mortality among children under the age of five; while over 100 others have cut it by one fifth.
* Deaths of young children from diarrheal diseases were reduced by 50% over the decade, saving as many as a million young lives.
* High and sustained levels of child immunization in most regions of the world have also continued to save millions of children.
* Polio is on the brink of eradication, with a 99 per cent reduction in the number of reported cases in the world compared to a decade ago.
* Worldwide, there are more children in school than ever before - and one result has been a rise in the adult literacy rate, from 75 percent in 1990 to 79 percent in 2000.
* There has been dramatic progress in preventing iodine deficiency disorders, the world's major cause of mental retardation, against which 90 million newborn children are now protected every year.
The Special Session’s outcome document 'A World Fit for Children', is a new agenda for the world's children, including 21 specific goals and targets for the next decade. The four key priorities are promoting healthy lives; providing quality education for all; protecting children against abuse, exploitation and violence; and combating HIV/AIDS. The leaders completed the unfinished agenda of the 1990 World Summit of Children, adding relevant targets of the UN Millennium Declaration. This document reaffirms leaders' obligation to promote and protect the rights of each child and also acknowledged the legal standards set by the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Plan of Action sets out three necessary outcomes: the best possible start in life for children, access to a quality basic education, including free and compulsory primary education, and ample opportunity for children and adolescents, to develop their individual capacities.
Statement of problems
Every year, about 51 million children born in the world. But not all children could enjoy and receive the basic right of human. After the Convention on the Right of the Child adopted in 1990, the right of children has been the crucial and important issue in United Nation (UN). The Convention protects the right of child (CRC), from life, nationality, freedom, safety, religion, education, language, privacy, and recreation, irrespective of the child’s race, gender, religion, national, ethnic, identity, and birth of status[1]. Besides, The World Declaration and the Plan of Action of the World Summit for Children have helped to promote the right of children. Under the effort of United Nations Child’s Fund (UNICEF), the poverty, sanitation, and famine of child have improved considerably and get huge progress.
However, there are still much more needs to be done. The resources that were promised at the summit at both the national and international levels have yet to materialize fully. There are still many critical challenges remained until now. Each year, more than 10 million children die, even though most of those deaths could be prevented. In the aspect of education, about 100 million children are still out of school, 60 per cent of them girls. Due to the insufficient resource in Africa and other countries, about 1.2 million of child are ill-iterated. Due to the famine and food crisis in Africa, it’s estimated that 150 million children suffer from malnutrition and died. According to World Health Organization’s report, an estimated 3.4 million children are living with HIV, and the AIDS is spreading with catastrophic speed, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.[2] There is persistent poverty, exclusion and discrimination, and inadequate investment in social services. Also, debt burdens, inconsistent with national security requirements, foreign occupation, hostage-taking terrorism, as well as the lack of efficiency in the use of resources, among other factors, can constrain UN’s efforts to protect, to promote and to ensure the well-being of children.[3] By the International Labour Organization (ILO) Global estimates in 2013, 85 millions of children continues to be devastated by hazardous and exploitative labor. Furthermore, the sale and trafficking of children as for the labor and sexual purpose deeply violate the fundamental right of freedom of child. With excessive military spending, armed conflict in many region, forms of abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence occur every day. After the General Assembly resolution S-27/2 and Security Council resolution 1261, the right of children need more attention of the international community.[3] Sanitation [4]
Although the morality rate decreased year by year, the health condition of child and environmental sanitation need more resource to improve. Since the epidemic and pandemic disease spread drastically, 58% of 6.6 million children died in 2012 by the report of WHO. And 88% of 2 million people, include child, died from polluted water. About 3.4 million children are living with HIV which leads to the disability of children even though 65 thousand of children have receive antiretroviral therapy. Other infectious disease such as malaria, tuberculosis and influenza also lead to the high fatality rate of children under 5 years old. Additionally, most of the African and South Asia countries lake of sufficient medical resource and complete health-care system such that the morality of births are still high. Hence, to protect the life right of children, we still need more effort to create health environments for child.
Fig 1.The Global under-five morality trend, 1990-2012. Child Labour & Trafficking.[5][13]
Child Labour have been a critical issue over the world. According to the estimation of UNICEF, 150 million children worldwide are engaged in child labour, with 58.6% of them involved in agriculture and 32.3% involved in service. Child labour are most common in sub-Saharan Africa. Besides, about 55 million of children are involved in hazardous work, such as drugs carriers, solider and diamond miners. With early entry to the labour force, most children delay entry to school, fail to complete basic education or became illiterate. Also, the children are often maltreated during the work place. Child labour is both a cause and consequence of poverty and armed conflict.
Most of the children are trafficked both within and between countries for the purpose of forced labour, prostitution, forced marriage, begging and other forms of exploitation. Although UN adopted the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution, and Child Pornography in 2000 and entered into force in 2002, with 156 ratified state parties, the trafficking of children are still unsolved. Every year, there are 300 to 400 thousand children are trafficked across international borders for domestic work due to the inequality of economics and poverty. Moreover, the gender inequality, discrimination, ethnicity and family functioning are the key factors of the trafficking children for prostitution. Research have indicated that trafficking child and commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) present grave risk to the physical, psychological, mental, and social development of children,
Fig 2. Percentage of children 5-14 years old engaged in child labour.[5]
Fig 3. Statistical data about the statement of children in employment.[5] Disability[6]
The issue of children with disability is cross-cutting. Due to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities, the right of disability children are also included in the CRC. However, children with disabilities are particularly vulnerable to physical violence, sexual, verbal and mental abuse, and discrimination. Also, most of them are less likely to access the resources of countries, such as entry to primary school, accessing the health service, and get complete medical treatment. As long as children with disabilities are denied equal access to school system and health-care system, it’s
impossible for the State parities to fulfill their responsibilities to article 24 of the convention. Without sufficient facilities in low and mid income countries, it’s reported that the public places are inconvenient and unfriendly for the children. In some cultures, children with disabilities usually face stigma and discrimination when using household and public facilities. The causes of disability are complicated. Malnutrition, ill-sanitation, armed conflict, violence, abuse, poverty, and infectious diseases are often lead to the physical and mental disability of children. Hence, it’s difficult but urgent to assist the children with disability and families screened with disability.
Fig 4. Comparison for Rate of Primary school completion [6] Food & Nutrition [7]
Food, health and care are often affected by social, economic and political factors. UNICEF’s 2009 report Tracking Progress on Child and Maternal Nutrition drew attention to the impact of undernutrition on child survival, development and their social and economic toll on state parties. Over 30 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America are insufficient of food and facing food crisis due to the critical climates and natural disaster. Therefore, the food crisis often leads to stunting, underweight, wasting, malnutrition, and disability. Poorly balance of Vitamin and mineral would cause infection that can lead to physical, sensory or intellectual disabilities. For instance, the deficiency of Vitamin A would cause blindness. Roughly 165 million children under 5 years worldwide were stunted in 2011. In sub-Saharan Africa, 40% of children are stunted. In South-Asia, 39 % of Children are stunted. 80% of the world’s stunted children are home to 10 countries. Globally in 2012, 101 million children were underweight. Underweight rate is highest in South Asia, which has a rate of 33%. And the second is Saharan Africa which is 21%. About 52 million children under 5 years of age were moderately or severely wasted. 16% of them were home to South Asia and 9% of them were home to Saharan Africa. Under the effort of United Nation Millennium
Development Goal beyond 2015(MDG) and World Food Programme, the global underweight prevalence have declined from 53% in 1990 to 16 % today and the wasting rate have decreased about 10% since 1990.Nvertheless, the consequence of poverty are yet to be improved. Fig 5. 80% of the world’s stunted children live in 14 countries.[7]
Fig 6. 30 countries on the track in MDG in 2011, which is a indicator of underweight rate.[7]
Fig 7. 10 most prevalence wasting countries in 2011[7] Armed Conflict [8]
In 2003, the resolution 1460 of Security Council called on parties to prepare and implement concrete action for the cessation of all the violation against children. In 2007, the Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict raised the attention to six categories of crimes against children’s right in the armed conflict: Killing and maiming of children; recruitment and used as child soldiers; rape or grave sexual violence; abduction; attack against schools or hospitals and denial of humanitarian access to children. Besides, report indicated that many children were systematically recruited as fighters, spices, informants and gun or drug carriers. As for young girls in conflict area, most of them suffered stigmatization or as victim of grave sexual violence. During the conflict, thousands of children not being killed and wounded every year, but die from malnutrition and diseases. More often than not, the great concern recently is the use of children in suicide attack by the terrorists. In law, the application of International juvenile justice standard for the treatment of child offenders has been limited, often resulting in prolong and arbitrary detention. Often, children’s concerns are seen as issues of lesser priority in the broader scheme of political negotiation.
In 2002, the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict entered into force, with 147 ratified state parties, and prevent children under 18 years old from recruitment as armed military. Besides, the integration of child protection in UN peacekeeping and the emerging complementary relationship between the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and UNICEF reached significant advances. The Security Council resolution 1612 in 2005 established a monitoring and reporting mechanism and the Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict. Especially, the rule of UNICEF has been emphasized and become the lead agency for children and armed conflict. After all, there are still many unsolved problems, deficiency and incompleteness in the protocol, convention and peace keeping system.
With above discussion, still many part of CRC couldn't run into force or fully enforced. The General Comment No.12 of Committee on the Right of the Child in 2009 emphasized the importance of the right of the child to be heard. The opinion and suggestion of children should be taken into consideration in judicial and administrative process. State parties must assure the right of the child to be heard, encourage the child to form a free view under sufficient information without any stress, and protect the children to freely express their own points of view. Possible Solutions [3, 9-11]
1. For the sanitation part, the possible way is to cooperate with WHO, NGOs and other organizations. The cooperation program of WHO should be reemphasized and improved in a efficient way in order to provide the medical resource for the children in need or under emergence.
2. For the child labour and trafficking part, the monitor system of the convention should be established. The inquiry procedure should also be improved. Besides, the State parties should improve the enforcement of convention through domestic legislation and administration.
3. For the disability part, the State parties should ratify and implement the convention, fight the discrimination, dismantle barriers to inclusion, create friendly environment and promise the equality of access the educational, medical and public resource or facilitates. Humanitarian assistance should also be considered through the system.
4. For the food and nutrition part, the cooperation with UN World Food Programme and WTO should be reconstructed. The MDG should be reconsidered and extended if necessary. Also, the domestic and national food programme should be launched by the State parties and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The imbalance of mineral and Vitamin should be considered and improved through WTO medicine trading mechanism or humanitarian policy.
5. For the armed conflict part, NGOs could play a crucial role in advocacy for and support of children affected by armed conflict. There is also a need to strengthen information analysis on children across diverse monitoring and reporting systems in conflict-affected countries. UN entities, donors and NGOs should improve complementarity and cooperation across intersecting mandates. Besides, the State parties should end impunity for violations against children. After all, the most effective way is to prevent conflict and promote peace and reconciliation through peace keeping system. The Work Group on Children and Armed Conflict should be strengthen by ratification and fully enforcement of the convention.
Question to be considered
Delegates should keep in mind that all resolutions need to be within the scope of the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee, outlined in Chapter IV of the United Nations Charter.104. Besides, delegates should take care not to impose on any nation’s sovereignty.
1. Under the CRC, resolution S-27 and other convention, try to complete the content of this document and fine most suitable resolution.
2. The MDG play an important part in children right, are there any improvement or extension needed in this plan?
3. UNIICEF are the most important agency in promotion and protection of child right. Try to redefine the rule and improve the right of UNICEF
4. Another improvement of two protocol are required, try to comment the deficiency of the protocols and provide more concrete policy.
Endnotes
1. Assembly, U.G., Convention on the Rights of the Child. United Nations, Treaty Series, 1989. 1577(3).
2. Piot, P., et al., The global impact of HIV/AIDS. Nature, 2001. 410(6831): p. 968-973.
3. UNICEF, A., A world fit for children. New York: UNICEF, 2002.
4. Suk, W.A., et al., Children’s Health Review. 2003.
5. Fund, U.N.C.s, Progress for children. Vol. 1. 2012: UNICEF.
6. Habibi, G., UNICEF and Children with Disabilities. Education Update, 2013. 2(4): p. 2.
7. Unicef, Improving child nutrition: The achievable imperative for global progress. New York, NY, USA: UNICEF, 2013:
p. 18.
8. Machel, G., Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Children. Impact of armed conflict on children. UNICEF, 1996.
9. Barthloet, E., Challenge of Children's Rights Advocacy: Problems and Progress in the Area of Child Abuse and Neglect, The. Whittier J. Child. & Fam. Advoc., 2003. 3: p. 215.
10. UNICEF, The State of the world's children 2012: children in an urban worldUnited Nations Children's Fund. New York, NY, 2012.
11. UNICEF., First call for children: World Declaration and Plan of Action from the World Summit for Children. 1990: UNICEF.
12. A-RES-S27-2E A world fit for children http://www.unicef.org/specialsession/wffc/
13. ILO, Marking Progress against child labour. Global Estimate on Child Labour. Vol.4, 2012
14. A/62/228 Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict http://www.un.org/depts/DGACM/A.Res.62.228.pdf 15. United Nation Children’s Fund Website http://www.unicef.org
16. Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org
Children's right is relatively a new concept comparing to human rights. Traditional view of children tended to consider them as an add-on of households for the parents. Children did not have much rights back then, everything depended on their parents, who exerted absolute control over their children. In the ancient times, no one ever thought of giving special protection to children. During Middle Age, children were already considered as “young adults”, some are married since young age. Although human rights were discussed in the 17th century, when Enlightenment challenged the old ideology and the idea of human rights began to be asserted, but it was not until the 19th and 20th century when the children's rights began to be considered.
The idea first appeared in France during the 19th century, when the French first thought to give children special protection, enabling the progressive development of “minor rights” In 1841, the laws started to protect children in their workplace. In 1881, French law included the right for education for children.
During the Industrial Revolution in the United States, children as young as six began to work in inhumane conditions, long working hours, and little pays. It was until the early 19th century that this exploitation began to attract opposition, and series of Factory Acts passed: working hours were reduced and limited for children, children younger than nine were not allowed to work, and factories are required to provide education for young apprentices. The Children's Right Movement began when the Orphan Train resulted in boys working as coal and factory workers, and girls as prostitutes or sweat shop worker.
At the beginning of the 20th century, France started to put children's protection in place, including protection in medical, social, and judicial fields. This kind of change started to spread across Europe after France's example. During the World War I, millions died and many more were orphaned during the war. The League of Nations (later known as the United Nations), then was formed after WWI, and started to give some kind of importance to children's rights concept, and try to protect the basic human right standard by elaborating a committee for child protection.
The League of Nations took actions by adopting the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1924, it was drafted by a British teacher Eglantyne Jebb, designed to put pressure on the post-war government to protect the children. This is also the first international treaty concerning children's right. Unfortunately, as fascism arises, the
Second World War began, with more children left homeless, orphaned, and other dire situation. Consequently, the UN Fund for Urgency for the Children is created in 1947, which later became known as UNICEF. From its inception, UNICEF focuses particularly on helping children victims of WW2, taking care mainly of European children. But in 1953 its mandate is enlarged to a truly international scope and its actions expanded to developing countries. In 1959 the United Nations General Assembly adopted a second Declaration of the Rights of the Child. Meanwhile the United Nations Human Rights Commission group started to work on the draft of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, also known as CRC, but it was not until 1989 that the work of CRC was completed and adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child is the text in relation to human rights which has been the most rapidly adopted. This text becomes an international treaty and enters in force on September 2, 1990, after being ratified by 20 states. The Organization for African Unity adopts the African Charter for the Rights and Welfare of the Child on July 11, 1990. The Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention is adopted on June 17, 1999.
In May 2000, the optional protocol to the International Charter of the Child Rights regarding the participation of children in armed conflicts is ratified. It entered into force in 2002. This text prohibits minors taking part in armed conflicts. As of today, the International Charter of the Child Rights has been signed by 190 states of 192, even though there are a few reservations concerning certain parts of the text. Only the US and Somalia have signed but not ratified. Today, its idea and its forceful character are almost universally accepted. However, its application could still be improved and the transformation of words into acts remains to be done.
Past UN actions
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
UNICEF was founded by United Nations General Assembly in 1946, in order to provide food, clothing and health care to those European children who suffered from famine and disease after WWⅡ. In 1953, UNICEF became permanent part of the UN system. The UNICEF was than awarded the 1965 Nobel Peace Price “for the promotion of brotherhood among nations.” UNICEF is active in more than 190 countries and territories through country programs and National Committees. The main function of UNICEF is to provide long-term humanitarian and developmental assistance to children and mothers in developing countries; it also upholds the Convention on the Rights of the Child and works for the Millennium Development Goals. Governments contribute two thirds of the organization's resources; corporations, civil society organizations and more than 6 million individual donors worldwide contribute the rest through the National Committees. The midterm strategic plan from 2006~ 2013 focus on five areas, which are:
* Young child survival and development
* Basic education and gender equality
* HIV/AIDS
* Child protection from violence, exploitation and abuse
* Policy advocacy and partnerships for children's rights
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
In 1959, the General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, which defines children’s rights to protection, education, health care, shelter and good nutrition. On 20 November 1989, the 30th anniversary of the declaration of the Rights of the Child, Convention on the Rights of Child (abbreviated as the CRC, CROC or UNCRC) was adopted by the General Assembly, and soon came into force in 1990, which is the first legally binding international instrument to incorporate the full range of human rights—civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights. It spells out the basic human rights that children everywhere should have the right to survival; to develop to the fullest; to protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitation; and to participate fully in family, cultural and social life. The four core principles of the Convention are non-discrimination; devotion to the best interests of the child; the right to life, survival and development; and respect for the views of the child. Until now, there are 193 parties in CRC including all UN member states except Somalia, South Sudan and the United States. Countries ratified or acceded the CRC have committed themselves to protecting and ensuring children's rights and they have agreed to hold themselves accountable for this commitment before the international community.
World Summit of Children
The largest-ever gathering led by 71 heads of State and Government and 88 other senior officials was held in 1990, promised to protect children and to diminish their suffering; to promote the fullest development of the human potential of every child; and to make them aware of their needs, their rights and their opportunities. The main result of the World Summit was the joint signing of a World Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children and a Plan of Action comprising a detailed set of child-related human development goals for the year 2000. The summit has successfully helped move child rights to a place high on the world's agenda. The Special Session is an important follow-up to the 1990 World Summit.
Special Session on Children
In 2002, a landmark Special Session of the UN General Assembly was convened to review progress since the World Summit for Children in 1990 and re-energize global commitment to children's rights. There were several clear progresses made which are:
* 155 countries have adopted National Programs of Action to move the agenda for children forward.
* 63 countries have achieved the targeted one-third reduction in mortality among children under the age of five; while over 100 others have cut it by one fifth.
* Deaths of young children from diarrheal diseases were reduced by 50% over the decade, saving as many as a million young lives.
* High and sustained levels of child immunization in most regions of the world have also continued to save millions of children.
* Polio is on the brink of eradication, with a 99 per cent reduction in the number of reported cases in the world compared to a decade ago.
* Worldwide, there are more children in school than ever before - and one result has been a rise in the adult literacy rate, from 75 percent in 1990 to 79 percent in 2000.
* There has been dramatic progress in preventing iodine deficiency disorders, the world's major cause of mental retardation, against which 90 million newborn children are now protected every year.
The Special Session’s outcome document 'A World Fit for Children', is a new agenda for the world's children, including 21 specific goals and targets for the next decade. The four key priorities are promoting healthy lives; providing quality education for all; protecting children against abuse, exploitation and violence; and combating HIV/AIDS. The leaders completed the unfinished agenda of the 1990 World Summit of Children, adding relevant targets of the UN Millennium Declaration. This document reaffirms leaders' obligation to promote and protect the rights of each child and also acknowledged the legal standards set by the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Plan of Action sets out three necessary outcomes: the best possible start in life for children, access to a quality basic education, including free and compulsory primary education, and ample opportunity for children and adolescents, to develop their individual capacities.
Statement of problems
Every year, about 51 million children born in the world. But not all children could enjoy and receive the basic right of human. After the Convention on the Right of the Child adopted in 1990, the right of children has been the crucial and important issue in United Nation (UN). The Convention protects the right of child (CRC), from life, nationality, freedom, safety, religion, education, language, privacy, and recreation, irrespective of the child’s race, gender, religion, national, ethnic, identity, and birth of status[1]. Besides, The World Declaration and the Plan of Action of the World Summit for Children have helped to promote the right of children. Under the effort of United Nations Child’s Fund (UNICEF), the poverty, sanitation, and famine of child have improved considerably and get huge progress.
However, there are still much more needs to be done. The resources that were promised at the summit at both the national and international levels have yet to materialize fully. There are still many critical challenges remained until now. Each year, more than 10 million children die, even though most of those deaths could be prevented. In the aspect of education, about 100 million children are still out of school, 60 per cent of them girls. Due to the insufficient resource in Africa and other countries, about 1.2 million of child are ill-iterated. Due to the famine and food crisis in Africa, it’s estimated that 150 million children suffer from malnutrition and died. According to World Health Organization’s report, an estimated 3.4 million children are living with HIV, and the AIDS is spreading with catastrophic speed, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.[2] There is persistent poverty, exclusion and discrimination, and inadequate investment in social services. Also, debt burdens, inconsistent with national security requirements, foreign occupation, hostage-taking terrorism, as well as the lack of efficiency in the use of resources, among other factors, can constrain UN’s efforts to protect, to promote and to ensure the well-being of children.[3] By the International Labour Organization (ILO) Global estimates in 2013, 85 millions of children continues to be devastated by hazardous and exploitative labor. Furthermore, the sale and trafficking of children as for the labor and sexual purpose deeply violate the fundamental right of freedom of child. With excessive military spending, armed conflict in many region, forms of abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence occur every day. After the General Assembly resolution S-27/2 and Security Council resolution 1261, the right of children need more attention of the international community.[3] Sanitation [4]
Although the morality rate decreased year by year, the health condition of child and environmental sanitation need more resource to improve. Since the epidemic and pandemic disease spread drastically, 58% of 6.6 million children died in 2012 by the report of WHO. And 88% of 2 million people, include child, died from polluted water. About 3.4 million children are living with HIV which leads to the disability of children even though 65 thousand of children have receive antiretroviral therapy. Other infectious disease such as malaria, tuberculosis and influenza also lead to the high fatality rate of children under 5 years old. Additionally, most of the African and South Asia countries lake of sufficient medical resource and complete health-care system such that the morality of births are still high. Hence, to protect the life right of children, we still need more effort to create health environments for child.
Fig 1.The Global under-five morality trend, 1990-2012. Child Labour & Trafficking.[5][13]
Child Labour have been a critical issue over the world. According to the estimation of UNICEF, 150 million children worldwide are engaged in child labour, with 58.6% of them involved in agriculture and 32.3% involved in service. Child labour are most common in sub-Saharan Africa. Besides, about 55 million of children are involved in hazardous work, such as drugs carriers, solider and diamond miners. With early entry to the labour force, most children delay entry to school, fail to complete basic education or became illiterate. Also, the children are often maltreated during the work place. Child labour is both a cause and consequence of poverty and armed conflict.
Most of the children are trafficked both within and between countries for the purpose of forced labour, prostitution, forced marriage, begging and other forms of exploitation. Although UN adopted the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution, and Child Pornography in 2000 and entered into force in 2002, with 156 ratified state parties, the trafficking of children are still unsolved. Every year, there are 300 to 400 thousand children are trafficked across international borders for domestic work due to the inequality of economics and poverty. Moreover, the gender inequality, discrimination, ethnicity and family functioning are the key factors of the trafficking children for prostitution. Research have indicated that trafficking child and commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) present grave risk to the physical, psychological, mental, and social development of children,
Fig 2. Percentage of children 5-14 years old engaged in child labour.[5]
Fig 3. Statistical data about the statement of children in employment.[5] Disability[6]
The issue of children with disability is cross-cutting. Due to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities, the right of disability children are also included in the CRC. However, children with disabilities are particularly vulnerable to physical violence, sexual, verbal and mental abuse, and discrimination. Also, most of them are less likely to access the resources of countries, such as entry to primary school, accessing the health service, and get complete medical treatment. As long as children with disabilities are denied equal access to school system and health-care system, it’s
impossible for the State parities to fulfill their responsibilities to article 24 of the convention. Without sufficient facilities in low and mid income countries, it’s reported that the public places are inconvenient and unfriendly for the children. In some cultures, children with disabilities usually face stigma and discrimination when using household and public facilities. The causes of disability are complicated. Malnutrition, ill-sanitation, armed conflict, violence, abuse, poverty, and infectious diseases are often lead to the physical and mental disability of children. Hence, it’s difficult but urgent to assist the children with disability and families screened with disability.
Fig 4. Comparison for Rate of Primary school completion [6] Food & Nutrition [7]
Food, health and care are often affected by social, economic and political factors. UNICEF’s 2009 report Tracking Progress on Child and Maternal Nutrition drew attention to the impact of undernutrition on child survival, development and their social and economic toll on state parties. Over 30 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America are insufficient of food and facing food crisis due to the critical climates and natural disaster. Therefore, the food crisis often leads to stunting, underweight, wasting, malnutrition, and disability. Poorly balance of Vitamin and mineral would cause infection that can lead to physical, sensory or intellectual disabilities. For instance, the deficiency of Vitamin A would cause blindness. Roughly 165 million children under 5 years worldwide were stunted in 2011. In sub-Saharan Africa, 40% of children are stunted. In South-Asia, 39 % of Children are stunted. 80% of the world’s stunted children are home to 10 countries. Globally in 2012, 101 million children were underweight. Underweight rate is highest in South Asia, which has a rate of 33%. And the second is Saharan Africa which is 21%. About 52 million children under 5 years of age were moderately or severely wasted. 16% of them were home to South Asia and 9% of them were home to Saharan Africa. Under the effort of United Nation Millennium
Development Goal beyond 2015(MDG) and World Food Programme, the global underweight prevalence have declined from 53% in 1990 to 16 % today and the wasting rate have decreased about 10% since 1990.Nvertheless, the consequence of poverty are yet to be improved. Fig 5. 80% of the world’s stunted children live in 14 countries.[7]
Fig 6. 30 countries on the track in MDG in 2011, which is a indicator of underweight rate.[7]
Fig 7. 10 most prevalence wasting countries in 2011[7] Armed Conflict [8]
In 2003, the resolution 1460 of Security Council called on parties to prepare and implement concrete action for the cessation of all the violation against children. In 2007, the Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict raised the attention to six categories of crimes against children’s right in the armed conflict: Killing and maiming of children; recruitment and used as child soldiers; rape or grave sexual violence; abduction; attack against schools or hospitals and denial of humanitarian access to children. Besides, report indicated that many children were systematically recruited as fighters, spices, informants and gun or drug carriers. As for young girls in conflict area, most of them suffered stigmatization or as victim of grave sexual violence. During the conflict, thousands of children not being killed and wounded every year, but die from malnutrition and diseases. More often than not, the great concern recently is the use of children in suicide attack by the terrorists. In law, the application of International juvenile justice standard for the treatment of child offenders has been limited, often resulting in prolong and arbitrary detention. Often, children’s concerns are seen as issues of lesser priority in the broader scheme of political negotiation.
In 2002, the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict entered into force, with 147 ratified state parties, and prevent children under 18 years old from recruitment as armed military. Besides, the integration of child protection in UN peacekeeping and the emerging complementary relationship between the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and UNICEF reached significant advances. The Security Council resolution 1612 in 2005 established a monitoring and reporting mechanism and the Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict. Especially, the rule of UNICEF has been emphasized and become the lead agency for children and armed conflict. After all, there are still many unsolved problems, deficiency and incompleteness in the protocol, convention and peace keeping system.
With above discussion, still many part of CRC couldn't run into force or fully enforced. The General Comment No.12 of Committee on the Right of the Child in 2009 emphasized the importance of the right of the child to be heard. The opinion and suggestion of children should be taken into consideration in judicial and administrative process. State parties must assure the right of the child to be heard, encourage the child to form a free view under sufficient information without any stress, and protect the children to freely express their own points of view. Possible Solutions [3, 9-11]
1. For the sanitation part, the possible way is to cooperate with WHO, NGOs and other organizations. The cooperation program of WHO should be reemphasized and improved in a efficient way in order to provide the medical resource for the children in need or under emergence.
2. For the child labour and trafficking part, the monitor system of the convention should be established. The inquiry procedure should also be improved. Besides, the State parties should improve the enforcement of convention through domestic legislation and administration.
3. For the disability part, the State parties should ratify and implement the convention, fight the discrimination, dismantle barriers to inclusion, create friendly environment and promise the equality of access the educational, medical and public resource or facilitates. Humanitarian assistance should also be considered through the system.
4. For the food and nutrition part, the cooperation with UN World Food Programme and WTO should be reconstructed. The MDG should be reconsidered and extended if necessary. Also, the domestic and national food programme should be launched by the State parties and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The imbalance of mineral and Vitamin should be considered and improved through WTO medicine trading mechanism or humanitarian policy.
5. For the armed conflict part, NGOs could play a crucial role in advocacy for and support of children affected by armed conflict. There is also a need to strengthen information analysis on children across diverse monitoring and reporting systems in conflict-affected countries. UN entities, donors and NGOs should improve complementarity and cooperation across intersecting mandates. Besides, the State parties should end impunity for violations against children. After all, the most effective way is to prevent conflict and promote peace and reconciliation through peace keeping system. The Work Group on Children and Armed Conflict should be strengthen by ratification and fully enforcement of the convention.
Question to be considered
Delegates should keep in mind that all resolutions need to be within the scope of the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee, outlined in Chapter IV of the United Nations Charter.104. Besides, delegates should take care not to impose on any nation’s sovereignty.
1. Under the CRC, resolution S-27 and other convention, try to complete the content of this document and fine most suitable resolution.
2. The MDG play an important part in children right, are there any improvement or extension needed in this plan?
3. UNIICEF are the most important agency in promotion and protection of child right. Try to redefine the rule and improve the right of UNICEF
4. Another improvement of two protocol are required, try to comment the deficiency of the protocols and provide more concrete policy.
Endnotes
1. Assembly, U.G., Convention on the Rights of the Child. United Nations, Treaty Series, 1989. 1577(3).
2. Piot, P., et al., The global impact of HIV/AIDS. Nature, 2001. 410(6831): p. 968-973.
3. UNICEF, A., A world fit for children. New York: UNICEF, 2002.
4. Suk, W.A., et al., Children’s Health Review. 2003.
5. Fund, U.N.C.s, Progress for children. Vol. 1. 2012: UNICEF.
6. Habibi, G., UNICEF and Children with Disabilities. Education Update, 2013. 2(4): p. 2.
7. Unicef, Improving child nutrition: The achievable imperative for global progress. New York, NY, USA: UNICEF, 2013:
p. 18.
8. Machel, G., Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Children. Impact of armed conflict on children. UNICEF, 1996.
9. Barthloet, E., Challenge of Children's Rights Advocacy: Problems and Progress in the Area of Child Abuse and Neglect, The. Whittier J. Child. & Fam. Advoc., 2003. 3: p. 215.
10. UNICEF, The State of the world's children 2012: children in an urban worldUnited Nations Children's Fund. New York, NY, 2012.
11. UNICEF., First call for children: World Declaration and Plan of Action from the World Summit for Children. 1990: UNICEF.
12. A-RES-S27-2E A world fit for children http://www.unicef.org/specialsession/wffc/
13. ILO, Marking Progress against child labour. Global Estimate on Child Labour. Vol.4, 2012
14. A/62/228 Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict http://www.un.org/depts/DGACM/A.Res.62.228.pdf 15. United Nation Children’s Fund Website http://www.unicef.org
16. Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org