"RIGHTS OF THE CHILD"

It is now more urgent than ever to end the violence in Syria and to improve access across the country, UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore and World Food Programme Executive Director David Beasley said today. Wrapping up a two-day visit to the country, the two agency chiefs also stressed the need to provide families with basic services and to improve their economic conditions. UNICEF

Following the release of a landmark report by the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and The Lancet on children’s health, WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said, “The health of children everywhere is at risk. We can do more, and we must do more. Our children, our young people, deserve better.” WHO

No single country is adequately protecting children’s health, their environment and their futures, finds a landmark report released today by a Commission of over 40 child and adolescent health experts from around the world. The Commission was convened by the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and The Lancet. UNICEF

Marking the International Day of Education, the President of the General Assembly, Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, said, “it is unacceptable that twenty years into the 21st Century, about 258 million children and youth do not attend school, 617 million children and adolescents cannot read and do basic math and millions of refugees and internally displaced persons, and people with disabilities are out of school.” UNIFEED

Children continue to pay a deadly price as conflicts rage around the world, UNICEF said today. Since the start of the decade, the United Nations has verified more than 170,000 grave violations against children in conflict – the equivalent of more than 45 violations every day for the last 10 years. UNICEF

In South Sudan’s Western Equatorial town of Yambio, children marched, danced and performed drama skits and poems as they demanded better protection of their rights on the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. UNMISS

UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Ishmael Beah has concluded a visit to his native Sierra Leone on the commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Ishmael, a former Sierra Leonean child soldier and best-selling author, traveled to Bombali and Tonkolili Districts in northern Sierra Leone, where he met with child survivors of sexual abuse, children in contact with the law and orphaned children. UNICEF

Briefing by Stephane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

World not keeping promises to young people, speakers warn at General Assembly anniversary meeting commemorating child’s rights convention at 31st and 32nd plenary meetings.

Marking the World Children’s Day, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador David Beckham said, “as leaders, as public figures, as parents and of course as human beings, we must all do more to protect children’s dreams, because the future doesn’t belong to us, it belongs to children.” UNIFEED