Subject: [fem-women2000 787] Women's GlobalNet #195: Kids Demand Action for World Leaders
From: iwtc <iwtc@iwtc.org>
Date: Fri, 10 May 2002 19:23:48 +0000
Seq: 787
============================================================ Sponsor a child today through Children International. Give a desperately poor child hope for a brighter future. For only $15 a month you can make a difference! http://click.topica.com/caaajW9aVxinVaVF16Va/ChildrenInternational ============================================================ IWTC WOMEN'S GLOBALNET #195 Initiatives and Activities of Women Worldwide By Anne S. Walker May 10, 2002 KIDS DEMAND ACTION FROM WORLD LEADERS AT UN SPECIAL SESSION ON CHILDREN (The following has been excerpted from articles in the New York Times) They heard plenty of promises from world leaders who vowed to improve their health, education and rights -- or simply provide them with food. But children attending the UN Special Session on Children demanded one thing: action. As the three-day meeting comes to an end, children from around the world are speaking out about AIDS and other diseases, the 120 million children who don't go to school, and governments that fail to respect children's rights. "Most leaders just pay lip service to children,'' Bernice Akuamoah, a 15-year-old from Ghana, said during a rare dialogue between African leaders and African children. "They come and they say all these nice things and we expect them to happen, but that's a whole other matter.'' Meanwhile, delegates from more than 180 countries were meeting behind closed doors, wrestling with a final summit document that is to set out new priorities and goals in efforts to improve the lot of children worldwide over the next 15 years. The most serious divisions were over an effort to include a reference to the plight of Palestinian children and over language on family planning, children's rights, and "reproductive health" that some conservatives interpret as advocating abortion. Negotiators met into the early hours on Friday, trying to wrap up the summit's final document. A US official said all the delegates have agreed privately that "health services" does not mean abortion, but the United States wants this specified in a footnote to the document. Diplomats said there was near-deadlock on the issue amid strong resistance to the US demand. During the negotiations over wording, American officials have pressed for specificity demanding, for instance, that the term "reproductive health services" be annotated to exclude abortion. In this they are joined by the Vatican, as well as several Islamic nations, from Iran to Pakistan. On the opposing side are delegates representing the European Union, as well as countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia. In the General Assembly, leaders of both the industrialized and developing world were urged to spend more money on children and less on weapons. "When there is a war against any nation, the state finds the money. This is a war for our children. We want the money and we are going to get it for them," said Najma Heptullah, deputy head of India's upper house of parliament. Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo pledged to spend less on defense and more on children. "My government has reduced the military expenditures and will use that money to bolster social spending, particularly in the defense and education of children," he told the General Assembly. Norway's Minister for International Development Hilde Johnsson said there was reason to be optimistic. "The tide is there. The countries that are not increasing aid feel a bit awkward and feel they should deliver more," she said. "That is very good pressure that has been built." US OPPOSES CHILDREN'S RIGHTS CONVENTION The conservative U.S. delegation also opposes the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) a UN treaty on children's rights that 187 of the 189 Member States of the UN have ratified. The United States and Somalia are the only holdouts, on the grounds that codifying such rights impinges on the rights of parents. (The US also opposes the banning of the death penalty for children under 18 which is part of the CRC). "The Bush administration is behaving as if they are all three branches of government,'' said Adrienne Germain, president of the International Women's Health Coalition. "Their positions are contrary to the Supreme Court, a majority in Congress and U.S. public opinion who support adolescent reproductive health and education," she said. The UN Special Session on Children is a follow-up to the 1990 World Summit on Children that aimed at setting guidelines in the areas of education and health for children for governments, advocacy groups and UN agencies. Many of those targets have not been met, due to lack of funds. Since then, the issues of AIDS and child protection have emerged as critical problems for children. Critics accuse the United States of trying to withhold life-saving tips about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV/AIDS, which is swiftly spreading among the young, particularly in the developing world. "We are really stuck," said Eveline Herfkens, the Minister for Development Cooperation of The Netherlands, "because one or two governments one of them this country (the US) wants to renegotiate commitments we made in previous conferences. Others, like us, feel it's unacceptable. I feel it's irresponsible." The European Union delegation, as well as those from many Asian, African and Latin American countries, favors maintaining earlier "agreed" language. "I think we should keep all the agreements we have done so far," the Finnish president, Tarja Halonen, said at a briefing with reporters this afternoon. 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