UNICEF and partners launch campaign to combat child discrimination in Europe

16 June The United Nations Children's Fund (<http://www.unicef.org/>UNICEF) 
and its partners today launched a regional advocacy campaign to create an 
inclusive environment in which no children in Eastern Europe and the 
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) are left vulnerable to violence, 
exploitation and abuse.

"Exclusion from basic services and a dignified start in life creates a 
vicious cycle of disadvantage, with harm passed from one generation to the 
next in a legacy of poverty, ill health, lack of education, and lack of 
prospects," UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy, told representatives 
of hundreds of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from 27 countries at 
the launch in Istanbul of the Leave No Child Outcampaign.

Arguing that the exclusion of millions of children in the countries of 
Eastern Europe and the CIS is undermining the development of those nations, 
Ms. Bellamy said exclusion undermines stability and democracy and holds 
societies back economically due to over-burdened public services and lost 
productivity.

Of the region's 117 million children, nearly 18 million are living in 
poverty, often denied basic services and opportunities to which they are 
entitled, according to UNICEF. Around 1.5 million children are living in 
public care instead of with their families -- around 1 million of them live 
in institutions. Children belonging to minority groups bear the brunt of 
discrimination and exclusion.

The yearlong campaign will include efforts to raise the issues of exclusion 
with governments, communities, key institutions and the media. Seven main 
forms of discrimination and exclusion -poverty, ethnicity, 
institutionalization, disability, the impact of conflict, gender 
discrimination and the stigma of HIV/AIDS - will be targeted.

Based on the non-discrimination principle of the 1989 Convention on the 
Rights of the Child, the campaign follows on the heels of the 
UNICEF-organized Say Yes for Childreninitiative that gathered 26 million 
pledges in the region in 2001-2002, identifying Leave No Child Outas the 
number one priority from among ten key issues facing children globally.

The Regional Network for Children (RNC) in Central and Eastern Europe, the 
CIS and the Baltic States -an association of non-governmental organizations 
that work with children in partnership with UNICEF -is spearheading the 
campaign.



--
The "child-rights" mailing list provides information on issues related
to children's human rights. Archives of "child-rights" messages, as well
as instructions on how to (un)subscribe to the list, can be found at:
http://www.hrea.org/lists/child-rights/markup/maillist.php