[child-rights] Special Session Update No. 4

Special Session Update No. 4 * FRIDAY 10 MAY 2002
- NGOs working together for the UN General Assembly Special Session on Children

««««« Somalia yesterday became the last country in the world to sign the 
Convention on the Rights of the Child. East Timor has said that after the 
country's independence on 20 May, the Convention will be the first 
international agreement to be signed by the new government.  «««««

SPECIAL SESSION 'IN JEOPARDY'

After almost two years of lobbying to secure a strong rights-based approach 
in A World Fit for Children, the Child Rights Caucus - a coalition of more 
than 100 organisations - yesterday voiced disappointment with the results. 
A Caucus spokesperson said they believed the United States was largely to 
blame and they had sent a letter of protest to the US delegation:


Open Letter to the Honorable Tommy Thompson, US Secretary of Health and 
Human Services and the United States delegation to the UN Special Session 
on Children:

As non-governmental organizations from the U.S. and around the world that 
are devoted to promoting and protecting the rights of children, we are 
deeply disappointed in the position that the United States has taken during 
the negotiations on the outcome document for the Special Session related to 
the Convention on the Rights of the Child, sexual and reproductive health 
education and services, and the death penalty. These positions neither 
reflect the reality of children's lives, nor the international framework of 
children's rights that has developed over the last twelve years. By rigidly 
maintaining its positions on these issues, the United States is putting the 
success of this Special Session in jeopardy.

We welcome the United States' support of the Optional Protocols to the 
Convention, and its ratification of ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms 
of Child Labor. However, the US' attempt to sideline the Convention on the 
Rights of the Child in the outcome document is an attack against the global 
consensus on the human rights of children that has built over the last 
twelve years. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is not only the 
most comprehensive international legal standard for children, but also the 
most rapidly and widely ratified treaty in history. It is the logical 
starting point and centerpiece of any international plan of action for 
children. Although not a state party, the United States should acknowledge 
the Convention's international significance as the global standard for 
children's rights.

The US' position of promoting abstinence as the primary strategy for 
dealing with adolescent sexuality is both naïve and inappropriate. For the 
millions of girls who marry before age 18 or who are forced into sexual 
relationships, abstinence is not an option, and lack of access to 
appropriate education and services can be life-threatening.  At previous 
international conferences, governments including the United States agreed 
that adolescents have the right to sexual and reproductive health 
education, information and services.  This right should be reaffirmed.

We regret that the United States is one of a very few countries that 
continues to use the death penalty for offenses committed before the age of 
eighteen.  We welcome the fact that some US states are ending this 
practice, as have the vast majority of countries around the world.  The 
international community has nearly universally condemned the use of capital 
punishment against juvenile offenders.  This norm should be acknowledged in 
the outcome document.

The Outcome Document of this U. N. Special Session on children has the 
potential to have strong influence on government policies and children's 
lives worldwide.  Like all other countries, the United States may register 
reservations on particular paragraphs of the outcome document.  We implore 
the United States government to use the recognized U.N. process for 
reservations and not to further impede progress of nations on the Outcome 
Document.

The Child Rights Caucus encompasses hundreds of national and international 
non-governmental organizations from around the world that are committed to 
promoting and protecting the rights of children.

CALL FOR A G.7 GROUP AS MINISTER VOICES AID HOPES

A "G.7" should be formed by countries that have fulfilled the 
long-established, widely-ignored United Nations aid target for rich 
countries to give 0.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in aid, 
Norwegian International Development Minister Hilde Johnson said yesterday.

The five countries that have met the target are Denmark, 
Luxembourg,  Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. Johnson told a news conference 
that Ireland and Belgium had plans to hit the target, and that Norway 
planned to increase its development assistance to 1 percent of GDP, with a 
15 percent share for education.

She called for children to be made the centre of development assistance 
policy-making and an end to "the donor circus" - as exemplified by 
Tanzania, which was required to make 1,000 reports to donors and whose 
finance ministry had to meet hundreds of delegations a year.

Though her suggestion for a Good Guys Group on the lines of the G7 group of 
industrialised countries might not be entirely serious, she said she 
believed the recent Monterrey conference marked a turning point in 
development finance.

She felt the preparations for Monterrey had been inadequate, and the 
prospects beforehand had looked poor. But both the European Union and the 
United States had made new pledges at the Mexico meeting - "it wasn't 
enough but it was a turning point because it ended the downward trend that 
has lasted for years. The tide is turning," she added, and even the 
countries that were not increasing their allocations felt they should do more.

Hilary Benn, UK parliamentary under secretary of state for international 
development, agreed that Monterrey had been positive. He told a briefing 
that there was now a broad understanding of the steps required to improve 
the situation of children, particularly since Monterrey. "UNGASS is a step 
along the way in the struggle to do something about international poverty," 
he said.

The UN Development Programme estimate is that about $50 billion a year aid 
is needed to reach the main global poverty elimination goals - a doubling 
of existing commitments.

Indian parliamentarian Dr Najma Heptullah told a meeting organised by the 
Inter-Parliamentary Union and UNICEF that the world was engaged in a war 
for children and that "without the funds, whatever promises we make have no 
meaning."



Special Session Update is published for the duration of the Special Session 
by the Child Rights Information Network (CRIN). In addition to being 
distributed to over 1,800 email addresses, more than 1,000 printed copies 
are available to delegates in New York.


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