Summary: June 11, 2001: Preparatory Committee for the Special Session on Children. Agenda Item 8. Statement by Ambassador Thomas Hammarberg, Head of Delegation of Sweden on behalf of the European Union (New York)
Madame Chairperson, Distinguished delegates,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the Europian Union under Agenda Item 8 on the report of the Secretary-General We the Children: End-decade Review of the Follow-up to the World Summit for Children. The Central and Eastern European Countries associated with the European Union, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Rumania, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Associated Countries Cyprus, Malta, and Turkey as well as the EFTA country member of the EEA Iceland align themselves
with this statement. All these countries together with countries in Central Asia took part in the regional meeting i Berlin 16-18 May.
First and foremost the European Union would like to express its appreciation of the report of the Secretary-General. It is clearly a very important document giving not only basic facts but also comprehensive and relevant analysis of key factors on progress and obstacles in our joint work for the full implementation of the rights of the child. Also, we welcome the efforts made by the Secretary-General to define priority actions for the future. Ideally, the Outcome Document from the Special
Session will also respond to these suggestions, the spirit of which the EU fully supports.
We hope it will be possible for all governments to submit their national reports in order that we get a truly global assissment of implementation. Relevant, also, are the reports by governments on their implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The leaders at the 1990 World Summit for Children made clear the relevance of the rights based approach in promoting the interests of children: "The aspirations of the international community for the well-being of children are best reflected in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, unanimously adopted by the General Assembly in November 1989. This Convention sets universal legal standards for the protection of children against neglect, abuse and exploitation, as well as guaranteeing to
them their basic human rights, including survival, development and full participation in social, cultural and other endeavours necessary for their individual growth and well-being. The Declaration of the World Summit calls on all Governments to promote earliest possible ratification and implementation of the Convention".
This call was heard. The Convention is now ratified by almost all States of the world. Two important Optional Protocols have also been adopted and will hopefully soon be broadly ratified - one on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict and the other on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography. The message of the Convention on the Rights of the Child has been incorporated into the UNICEF mission statement and been "maintreamed" into other UN programmes as well.
Furthermore, the principles and provisions of the Convention have formed the basis for reform efforts at national level in a number of countries. Measures have been taken to review relevant legislation as well as ombudswork and other monitoring systems, data collection,, awareness and education programmes and budget processes in the spirit of the best interests of the child. This means that an important process has started towards more child friendly attitudes and the creation of political
instruments to make reality of the rights of the child.
The 1990 Plan of Action has functioned as an important tool to encourage implementation of the Convention, with an emphasis on health, nutrition, basic education, special protection of vulnerable groups, non-discrimination, gender equality, and poverty reducation. The End-decade Review shows clearly that the Convention of the Rights of the Child has inspired and quided national policies, plans of action, legislation and other measures. The Special Session should be prepared and organised to
serve the same purpose - building on the lessons learnt during the past eleven years. In this, it could also draw upon agreements reached at the last decade's major world conferences and their follow-up meetings.
Another crucial development in many countries has been the emergency of civil society groups working for the rights of the child. They have organised their own grass root programmes, enabled the voices of children to be heard, given constructive advice and monitored the performance of authorities. This has contributed to the spread of the essential idea of partnership for children.
Despite all the efforts, however, the goals set at the 1990 World Summit have not been fully realised. This, indeed, is a key message in the Secretary-General's report, calling for our reflection - and response. Armed conflicts and political tensions have severely undermined constructive efforts in several regions. The HIV/AIDS pandemic has brought a disaster of gigantic proportions and victimised millions, including children. During the economic down-turn of the nineties insufficient resources
were devoted to promoting the interests of children, including their rights to eduction and health care; budgets cuts and other measures for structural adjustment tended to create disparities to the disadvantage of vulnerable groups of children. Such disparities, in turn, have created diffculties to social reform work, for instance in the combat against sexual abuse and domestic violence.
However, another clear lesson from the last decade is that political will matters. The Secretary-General states in a key sentence of the report: "The world has fallen short of the goals of the World Summit for Children, not because the were to ambitious or were technically beyond reach. It has fallen short largely because of insufficient investment". That conclusion points at our overriding challenge: to bridge the gap between commitment and action.
The responsibility is both local and global, both national and international. Every State Party to the Convention has undertaken to allocate the maximum of available resources to the benefit of children. All countries are thereby encouraged to invest for children, to use the existing resources efficiently and effectively - including giving priority to basic social services - and also to try to mobilise new resources - financial, personal and organisational. As comes through in the
Secretary-General's report: a committed, competent leadership is a resource of greatest import.
The Convention stresses the need for international co-operation and the 1990 World Summit called for "transfers of appropriate additional resources to developing countries as well as improved terms of trade, further trade liberalization and measures for debt relief" . We are pleased that the recent Third Conference on the Least Developed Countries has contributed to this end. The meeting convened in London in February by the British Government underlined that much still had to be done on this
agenda. The donor governments need to review both the level of their contributions and the extent to which these are directed towards the most crucial priorities. Poverty reduction strategies should include children. Burden sharing in relation to international development programmes will be discussed in other UN forums which are not synchronised with the Special Session process. It is, however, important that the conclusions of the Special Session are seriously considered during the forthcoming
International Conference on Financing for Development and its preparations.
One lesson from the past eleven years is that it is important that there is determined follow-up to the internationally agreed goals and plans in terms of more concrete planning adusted to national circumstances. Ideally, each government should after the Special Session define its own goals and targets, relevant to its particular needs and problems. This is when the political will of governments will be tested and when resource allocation and implementation of national action plans ought to be
a primary consideration. This is also when UN agencies and other representatives of the international community should be ready for a constructive dialogue.
Thank you, Madame Chairperson.
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