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 19 November 2009
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UNICEF commends role of partnerships to promote children's rights

19/11/2009

UNICEF reports significant progress over the last 20 years in promoting the rights of children around the world.

Zimbabwean schoolchildren

Zimbabwean schoolchildren

Launching a special Edition of the State of the World's Children, to mark the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the agency lists a number of these achievements.

It says the number of children dying unnecessarily everyday before the age of five has dropped from 12.5 million in 1990 to 90 million in 2008.

In addition between 84 and 85 per cent of children are in school and the number of those out of school dropped from 115 million in 2002 to just 100 million in 2007.

Philip O'Brien, UNICEF's director of private fundraising and partnerships, says none of this would have been possible without partnerships and commended the role of the InterParliamentary Union (IPU).

"It is partially because of the result of that partnership that we have seen such extraordinary strides in legislative reform, in putting protective measures into national legislation that draw on the Convention on the Rights of the Child. And it can certainly be said that through the ability of parliamentarians to shape and adapt favourable laws and their power to influence budgets and support children."

On the role of IKEA, Philip O'Brien says over the last year the company has not only committed more than $180 million in cash and in kind donations, it is also supporting effort to take children out of bad labour conditions.

Mr. O'Brien also points out that there is still a lot of work to be done because there are still thousands of children under the age of five who die every day and mothers who lose their lives in child birth.

Dianne Penn, United Nations Radio.

(duration: 1'52")

Sound bites

Philip O'Brien Cut 1

"It is partially because of the result of that partnership that we have seen such extraordinary strides in legislative reform, in putting protective measures into national legislation that draw on the Convention on the Rights of the Child. And it can certainly be said that through the ability of parliamentarians to shape and adapt favourable laws and their power to influence budgets and support children."
Duration: 00:00:23

Philip O'Brien Cut 2

"Twenty years ago the member states of the United Nations made a commitment to children and adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child and since then everyone but two has ratified that Convention and both of those two have signed it. And out of that Convention grew an extraordinary commitment to change national legislation to put children at the core of what governments were doing when they were looking at legislation. And so, for us it's a pleasure to produce a report that tracks the changes in the way the world has looked to children over the last twenty years."
Duration: 00:00:39

Philip O'Brien Cut 3

"We know that 70 of the 193 countries have actually made significant changes and incorporated children's codes into national legislation. We know that there has been a direct impact, not directly from the Convention but because of the work that was inspired by the Convention. And we have seen things like numbers of children who were dying unnecessarily everyday drop significantly. In 1990 there were twelve-and-a-half million children dying before the age of five. In 2008 that's down to 9 million and the trend is that it will continue. We now know that we have got 84 - 85 per cent of all kids in school and the number of children who were out of school in 2002 are 115 million has now fallen to just 100 million in 2007."
Duration: 00:00:49

Philip O'Brien Cut 4

"None of this is possible, this is not just UNICEF. This is all about partnerships and how partnerships work. And one of the two partnerships that I would to speak briefly about today is with the International Parliamentary Union. As you know, IPU is the oldest multilateral political association that was established 120 years ago and we have partnered with it for many years. And it's global, all countries, all parliamentarian. And over the last six years our joint activities with them have included a special child protection parliamentary forum on the occasion of the UN General's Assembly's special session on children and we have developed with them handbooks for parliamentarians on child issues like child protection, child trafficking, juvenile justice and violence against children."
Duration: 00:00:52

Philip O'Brien Cut 5

"One of our very important partnerships, not just in terms of the money that is generated for programmes for children, but in the way it is approached the issue of child protection and child rights is our partnership with IKEA, the Ikea Social Initiative (?). Over the last year of that partnership they have committed more than $180 million in both cash and in kind donations to UNICEF's programmes. But, as important as that money, through its social initiative, they have been a key supporter of work that we want to do on taking children out of the supply chain, taking children out of bad labour conditions, taking children out of work and moving them to school. IKEA has joined with UNICEF to tackle this issue at its root cause in the countries where they are sourcing some of their products and they have made a public commitment to fight for every child's rights. They are the one company that we work with who have a dedicated child's ombudsperson, if I can use that title within their own corporate structure."
Duration: 00:01:10

Philip O'Brien Cut 6

"So in brief, there have been significant successes in what the Convention has helped the world achieve and in the commitment that has enabled governments to translate into national legislation. But we do have still plenty of work to do. We still known that today there is over 24,000 children who die under the age of five needlessly every day. And we know that over the last 15-20 years over a half a million mums have died simply because they have not had the protective coverage of a very simple vaccine. And even today we know that one in five of those does not receive even a single ante-natal visit from a skilled health professional. So there is plenty of work for us to do to answer the question, how do we envision the world for children 20 years from now?"
Duration: 00:00:54