Preparatory Committee for the Special Session of the General Assembly on Children

Third substantive session

11-15 June 2001

Third revised draft outcome document, paragraphs 1-39*

A world fit for children

Third revised draft submitted by the Bureau of the Committee

Contents

I. Declaration

1. Eleven years ago, at the World Summit for Children, world leaders made a joint commitment and issued an urgent, universal appeal to give every child a better future.

2. Since then, much progress has been made, as documented in the report of the Secretary-General entitled "We the Children".¹ Millions of young lives have been saved, more children than ever are in school, more children are actively involved in decisions concerning their lives and important treaties have been concluded to protect children. However, these achievements and gains have been uneven, and many obstacles remain, particularly in developing countries. A brighter future for all has proved elusive, and overall gains have fallen short of national obligations and international commitments.

3. We, the Governments participating in the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children, are determined to seize this historic opportunity to change the world for and with children. Accordingly, we reaffirm our commitment to complete the unfinished agenda of the World Summit for Children and to address other emerging issues vital to the achievement of the longer-term goals and objectives endorsed at recent major United Nations summits and conferences, in particular the United Nations Millennium Declaration,² through national action and international cooperation.

4. We reaffirm our obligation to promote and protect the rights and well-being of each child — every human being below the age of 18 years, acknowledging that the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child,³ the most universally embraced human rights treaty in history, and other relevant human rights instruments constitute important standards for the realization of child rights.

5. We recognize and support parents and families as the primary caretakers of children and strengthen their capacity to provide the optimum care, nurturing and protection.

6. We hereby call on all members of society to join us in a global movement that will help build a world fit for children by upholding the following principles:

7. In line with these principles, we adopt the Plan of Action contained in section III below, confident that together we will build a world in which all girls and boys can enjoy childhood — a time of play and learning, in which they are loved, respected and cherished, their safety and well-being are paramount, and they can develop in health, peace and dignity.

II. Review of progress and lessons learned

8. The World Declaration and Plan of Action of the World Summit for Children⁴ are among the most rigorously monitored and implemented international commitments of the 1990s. Annual reviews were held at the national level and progress reports presented to the General Assembly. A mid-decade review and an extensive global end-decade review were conducted. The latter included high-level regional meetings in Beijing, Berlin, Cairo, Kathmandu and Kingston, which reviewed progress; ensured follow-up to the Summit and other major conferences; promoted renewed commitment to child rights; and guided actions for the future. Complementing efforts by Governments, a wide range of actors participated in the reviews, including children themselves, young people’s Organisations, academic institutions, religious groups, civil society Organisations, parliamentarians, the media, United Nations agencies, donors and major national and international non-governmental Organisations (NGOs).

9. As documented in the end-decade review of the Secretary-General on follow-up to the World Summit for Children, the 1990s was a decade of great promises, and modest achievements for the world’s children. On the positive side, the Summit and the entry into force of the Convention on the Rights of the Child helped accord political priority to children. A record 192 countries ratified, acceded to or signed the Convention. Some 155 countries prepared national programmes of action to implement the Summit goals. Regional commitments were made. International legal provisions and mechanisms strengthened the protection of children. Pursuit of the Summit goals has led to many tangible results for children: this year, three million fewer children will die than a decade ago; polio has been brought to the brink of eradication; and, through salt iodization, 90 million newborns are protected every year from a significant loss of learning ability.

10. Yet much more needs to be done. The resources that were promised at the Summit at both the national and international levels have yet to fully materialize. Critical challenges remain; more than 10 million children die each year although most of those deaths could be prevented; 100 million children are still out of school, 60 per cent of them girls; 150 million children suffer from malnutrition; and HIV/AIDS is spreading with catastrophic speed. There is persistent poverty, exclusion and discrimination, and inadequate investment in social services. The childhood of millions continues to be devastated by hazardous and exploitative labour; the sale and trafficking of children and women; the impact of armed conflict; and other forms of abuse, exploitation and violence.

11. The experience of the past decade has confirmed that the needs and rights of children must be a priority in all development efforts. There are many key lessons: change is possible — and children’s rights are an effective rallying point; policies must address both immediate factors affecting or excluding groups of children and wider and deeper causes of inadequate protection and rights violations; vertical approaches and targeted interventions that achieve rapid successes need to be pursued, with due attention to sustainability and participatory processes; and efforts should build on children’s own resilience and strength. Multisectoral programmes focusing on early childhood and support to families, especially in high-risk conditions, merit special support because they provide lasting benefits for child growth, development and protection.

III. Plan of Action

A. Creating a world fit for children

12. A world fit for children is one in which all children get the best possible start in life, have access to a quality basic education, including primary education that is compulsory and available free to all, and as adolescents have ample opportunity to develop their individual capacities in a safe and supportive environment. We will promote the physical, social, emotional, cognitive and cultural development of children as a matter of national and global priorities.

13. The family is the fundamental unit of society and holds the primary responsibility for the protection, upbringing and development of children. All institutions of society should respect children’s rights and well-being and render appropriate assistance to parents, families, legal guardians and other caregivers so that children can grow and develop in a safe and stable environment and in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding.

14. We also recognize that a considerable number of children live without parental support, such as orphans, children living on the street, internally displaced and refugee children, children affected by trafficking, and sexual and economic exploitation, and children who are incarcerated. Special measures should be taken to support such children, and the institutions, facilities and services that care for them, and to build and strengthen children’s own abilities to protect themselves.

15. We are determined to promote access by parents, families, legal guardians, caregivers and children themselves to a full range of information and services to promote child survival, development, protection and participation.

16. Poverty is the greatest obstacle to meeting the needs and fulfilling the rights of children. It must be tackled on many fronts, from the provision of basic social services to the creation of employment opportunities, from the availability of microcredit to investment in infrastructure, and from debt relief to fair trade practices. Children are hardest hit by poverty because it strikes at the very roots of their potential for development — their growing bodies and minds. Eradication of child poverty and reduction of disparities must therefore be a key objective of development efforts. The goals and strategies agreed upon at recent major United Nations conferences, in particular the Millennium Summit, provide a helpful international framework for national strategies for poverty reduction to fulfill the rights and promote the well-being of children.

17. Globalization and continuing rapid technological advances offer unprecedented opportunities for social and economic development. At the same time, they present serious challenges, including financial crises, insecurity, poverty, exclusion, environmental threats, and inequality within and among societies. Our challenge is to make globalization work for the benefit of all, including children. We are committed to an open, equitable, rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory multilateral trading and financial system. Investment in education and training will assist in this task, particularly in enabling children to partake of the benefits of the breakthroughs in information and communication technologies to ensure that globalization becomes more inclusive and that its benefits are shared more widely within and among nations.

18. Discrimination gives rise to a self-perpetuating cycle of social and economic exclusion and undermines children’s ability to develop to the fullest. We will make every effort to eliminate discrimination against children, whether rooted in the child’s or his or her parent’s or legal guardian’s race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status.

19. We will take all necessary measures to ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, including access to health, education and recreational services, by children with disabilities and special needs; to ensure their dignity; to promote their self-reliance; and to facilitate their active participation in the community.

20. Indigenous children, children of racial, religious and ethnic minorities and children of displaced families are disproportionately disadvantaged in many countries due to discrimination. We shall take appropriate measures to provide special support and to ensure access to services for these children.

21. The achievement of goals for children, particularly for girls, will be advanced if women fully enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms, are empowered to participate fully and equally in all spheres of society and are protected from all forms of violence, abuse and discrimination. We are determined to provide special attention to the needs of the girl child in order to promote and protect her right to be free from coercion and from harmful practices and sexual exploitation. We will promote full gender equality and equal access to services, such as education, nutrition, health care, including sexual and reproductive health care, and will mainstream a gender perspective in all development policies and programmes.

22. We also recognize the need to address the changing role of men in society, as boys, adolescents and fathers. We will further promote the joint responsibility of both parents in education and in the raising of children, and will make every effort to provide fathers with the opportunities to participate in their children’s lives. There also needs to be greater recognition of the challenges faced by boys growing up in the modern world, where traditional gender roles have changed.

23. It is vital that national goals for children include targets for reducing all disparities, in particular those which arise from discrimination, between girls and boys, rural and urban children, wealthy and poor children, and those with and without disabilities.

24. A number of environmental problems and trends, such as global warming, ozone layer depletion, air pollution, hazardous wastes, exposure to chemicals and pesticides, inadequate sanitation, poor hygiene, unsafe drinking water and food and inadequate housing, need to be addressed to ensure the health and well-being of children.

25. Adequate housing fosters family integration, contributes to social equity and strengthens the feeling of belonging, security and human solidarity, which are essential for the well-being of children. Accordingly, we will attach a high priority to overcoming the housing shortage and other infrastructure needs, particularly for children in marginalized peri-urban and remote rural areas.

26. We will take measures to manage our natural resources and protect and conserve our environment in a sustainable manner and help to break the vicious cycle of poverty and environmental degradation. We will work to change unsustainable patterns of production and consumption and help to inspire all children and adults to respect the natural environment for their health and well-being.

27. The Convention on the Rights of the Child and its optional protocols and other relevant international treaties and conventions are essential standards for building a world fit for children. Reservations to the Convention on the Rights of the Child should be reviewed regularly with a view to withdrawing them as soon as possible. We encourage all countries to sign, ratify, accede and fully implement these instruments⁵ as soon as possible.

28. The principles contained in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other relevant human rights instruments, including the best interests of the child, non-discrimination, participation and survival and development, provide the best normative framework for all our actions. We therefore commit ourselves to implementing this Plan of Action through such measures as:

(a) Putting in place effective national legislation, policies and action plans, and allocating resources to promote and protect the rights and well-being of children;

(b) Establishing or strengthening domestic bodies such as independent ombudspersons for children, and other institutions or processes to promote and protect the well-being of children and to hold us accountable for our obligations to children;

(c) Developing monitoring and evaluation systems at the national level to assess the impact of our actions in promoting the well-being of children;

(d) Enhancing widespread understanding of the rights and well-being of children.

Partnerships and participation

29. In order to implement this plan of action, we will strengthen our partnership with the following actors, who have unique contributions to make, and encourage the use of all avenues for participation to advance our common cause — the well-being of children and the realization of their rights.

B. Goals, strategies and actions

30. Since the World Summit for Children, many goals and targets relevant to children have been endorsed by major United Nations summits and conferences and their review processes. We strongly reaffirm our commitment to achieve these goals and targets, and to offer this and future generations of children the opportunities denied to their parents. As a step towards building a strong foundation for attaining the 2015 international development targets and Millennium Summit goals, we resolve to achieve the unmet goals and objectives as well as a consistent set of intermediate targets and benchmarks during the course of this decade (2000-2010) in the following priority areas of action.

1. Promoting healthy lives

31. Due to poverty and lack of access to basic social services, more than 10 million children under five years of age, nearly half of them in their neonatal period, die every year of preventable diseases and malnutrition; complications related to pregnancy and childbirth kill more than half a million women and adolescent girls a year, and injure and disable many more; more than one billion people cannot obtain safe drinking water; 150 million children under five years of age are malnourished; and more than two billion people lack access to adequate sanitation.

32. We are determined to break the intergenerational cycle of malnutrition and poor health by providing a safe and healthy start in life for all children; providing access to effective, equitable and sustained primary health-care systems in all communities; ensuring access to information and referral services, where needed; providing adequate water and sanitation services; and promoting a healthy lifestyle among children and adolescents. Accordingly, we resolve to achieve between the year 2000 and 2010:

(a) Reduction in the infant and under-five mortality rate by at least one third, in pursuit of the goal of reducing it by two thirds by 2015;

(b) Reduction in the maternal mortality ratio by at least one third, in pursuit of the goal of reducing it by three quarters by 2015;

(c) Reduction of child malnutrition among children under five years of age by at least one third, with special attention to children under two years of age;

(d) Reduction in the proportion of households without access to hygienic sanitation facilities and affordable and safe drinking water by at least one third;

(e) Development and implementation of national early childhood development policies and programmes to ensure the enhancement of children’s physical, social, emotional and cognitive development.

33. To achieve these goals and targets, we will carry out the following strategies and actions:

2. Providing quality education

34. Education is a human right and a key factor to reducing poverty and child labour and promoting democracy, peace, tolerance and development. Yet more than 100 million children of primary school age, the majority of them girls, are not enrolled in school. Millions more are taught by untrained and underpaid teachers in overcrowded, unhealthy and poorly equipped classrooms. And one third of all children do not complete five years of schooling, the minimum required for basic literacy.

35. As agreed at the World Education Forum in Dakar, we will accord high priority to ensuring by 2015 that all children have access to primary education that is free, compulsory and of good quality, with special emphasis on girls, the poorest, those from ethnic and linguistic minority groups, working children and children with special needs. We will also aim at the progressive provision of secondary education. As a step towards these goals, we resolve to achieve the following targets:

(a) Expand and improve comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children;

(b) Eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005;

(c) Reduce the number of primary school-age children who are out of school by 50 per cent and increase net primary school enrolment to at least 90 per cent by 2010;

(d) Improve all aspects of the quality of basic education so that children and young people achieve recognized and measurable learning outcomes in numeracy, literacy and essential life skills.

36. To achieve these goals and targets, we will implement the following strategies and actions:

3. Protecting against abuse, exploitation and violence

37. Social and economic pressures are undermining the crucial role of parents, families, caregivers and communities in ensuring that children grow up in a safe, stable and nurturing environment. During the 1990s, more than two million children died as a result of armed conflict; more than three times that number were permanently disabled or seriously injured; and at the end of the decade, some 20 million children were internally displaced or driven from their countries as refugees. More than 100 million children are trapped in the worst forms of child labour. Millions of children are victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation. Domestic violence against women and children is a serious problem in all parts of the world.

38. Children have the right to be protected against all abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence. Societies must ensure that no form of violence against children is ever considered acceptable. Accordingly, we resolve to:

(a) Protect children from all forms of abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence;

(b) Protect children from the impact of armed conflict and forced displacement, and ensure compliance with international humanitarian and human rights law;

(c) Protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation and trafficking;

(d) Immediately eliminate the worst forms of child labour as defined in International Labour Organisation Convention No. 182.

39. To achieve these goals, we will implement the following strategies and actions:

General protection

Protection from armed conflict

Notes

¹ A/S-27/3.

² General Assembly resolution 55/2.

³ General Assembly resolution 44/25, annex.

⁴ A/53/186.

⁵ The Convention on the Rights of the Child and its optional protocols on the involvement of children in armed conflict and on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (General Assembly resolution 54/263, annexes I and II); the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (General Assembly resolution 34/180, annex); International Labour Organisation Conventions Nos. 138 and 182 on child labour; the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (A/CONF.183/9); the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (see CD/1478); the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (General Assembly resolution 55/25, annex I); and the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption.

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