International Bulletin - August 2002
Report from UNICEF
It has been another interesting year at UNICEF. The year ended with the 8 - 10 May Special Session on children, held at the United Nations. This conference, a follow-up to the 1990 World Summit for Children, was scheduled to be held last September, but postponed due to the world Trade Center tragedy. Three thousand five hundred guests were expected to attend as well as heads of state from 60 nations - the largest number of participants ever to attend a UN conference.
Due to the large number of persons who were attending the Session, each Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) was restricted to four passes - all non-transferable. PPSEAWA participants included Paddy Walker from the Cook Islands who made a special trip to New York; Helen Chong, Presid3ent of PPSEAWA-USA; Casey Bush, nominees for President of PPSEAWA New York; and myself, Janet Nixon.
A unique feature of this conference was the participation of a large number of children from all over the world. These children actively engaged in the proceedings and who appealed to us to listen to them, hear them, and let them be partners with us in working out solutions to their problems. The UNICEF NGO Working Group on Girls, of which I am a member, sponsored two workshops during the conference. One, a Girl's Speakout panel was composed of children who discussed issues in their countries. The other was an Early Marriage panel of four experts who provided shocking information such as the fact that in some countries, girls marry as early as 9 or 10 years.
The final document - a Plan of Action - was entitled " A World Fit for Children" and the young participants presented their final views in a poem entitled" A World Fir for Us". At one session, I heard a 12 year old girl from Afghanistan speak about some girls in her country who marry at the age of 12. I lunched with two teenagers from the West Bank / Gaza Strip who shared their views on the Middle East situation. What a marvelous opportunity to hear first hand about children's problems and children's solutions to their problems from so many.
I continue to enjoy serving as your representative at UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund. Our Working Group on Girl's newsletter #9 is in the mail. This continues to connect us with other organizations around the world whose focus is on the plight and the rights of the girl child. We welcome contributions from readers. Our e-mail address is WGGS@girlsrights.org. Our fax is: 1-212-599-2712.
Last Modified: November 29, 2002