A WORLD VISION JOURNAL OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT Third Quarter, 2001 Building a world fit for children UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy The Human Security Network Canadian Foreign Minister John Manley Ending violence Our war-affected children against children UN Under-Secretary General Olara Otunnu For the children WHEN CONSIDERING the issue of violence against children, images Third Quarter, 2001 that come to mind tend to centre around conflict: orphans wandering Ending violence against children decimated down-towns, destitute waifs in refugee camps, child soldiers Building a world fit for children 1 recruited into rebel armies. However, UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy calls governments, NGOs, most violence against children takes businesses and others to take the cause of children’s well-being as their own. place where children should feel safest: in their homes. The Human Security Network at work 4 This issue of Global Future takes Canadian Foreign Minister Hon. John Manley calls for practical measures to a look at a number of circumstances be put into action in war-ravaged nations in order to protect children. in which today’s children face a range Placing war-affected children on the world’s agenda 6 of threats and attacks, from child labour to slavery and trafficking; from Olara A. Otunnu, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for imprisonment in adult institutions to Children and Armed Conflict, applauds progress already made, but calls for torture and abuse; and from attacks greater efforts to protect children. in the home to attacks on the world’s Child slavery in West Africa and beyond 8 battlefields. Authorities on—and advocates Children: a forbidden weapon of war 9 for—today’s children, such as Violence reverberates through the generations 11 UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy and UN Under-Secretary Protecting their rights 12 General Olara Otunnu, talk in this Children as targets of torture 14 edition of Global Future about the status of today’s children, especially Are we making progress? 16 those in the developing world. But, in addition to discussing the dire condi- Actions speak louder than words 17 tions in which children find them- On the streets in Cambodia 19 selves, they also talk about tools avail- able to the world community to begin Imagine a world where children are safe 20 reversing those conditions.Tools such as the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the ‘Say Yes for Children’ cam- paign, the Human Security Network, Global Future is published quarterly by Correspondence should be and the International Labour World Vision to encourage debate and discus- addressed to: sion on development issues. Organisation’s Convention 182. Global Future Melanie Gow, World Vision’s policy World Vision officer for child rights, talks on page Publisher Dean R. Hirsch 800 W. Chestnut Ave. Editor Randy Miller Monrovia, California 91016-3198 20 about a new advocacy campaign USA launched by World Vision to publicise Contributing correspondents: Kelly Currah, Telephone (1) 626-303-8811 and seek action on this issue. Melanie Gow, Brett Parris, Matt Scott, Don Brandt, FAX (1) 626-301-7786 Some of these tools are relatively Heather MacLeod, Joe Muwonge,Alan Whaites. e-mail: [email protected] new; some have been around for All opinions expressed in Global Future OR: years, waiting for the world to sit up are those of the authors. and take notice.And more important- World Vision Articles may be freely reproduced, with acknowl- 6 Chemin de la Tourelle ly, to take action. The time to act is edgement, except where other copyright is indicat- 1209 Geneva, Switzerland now.We can’t afford to wait. Neither ed.Annual subscription in USA: US$15, but sent ■ ISSN 0742-1524 can our children. free of charge to NGOs in the South. COVER PHOTO BY JON WARREN: COLOMBIA’S CHILDREN TAKE TO THE STREETS IN A DEMONSTRATION FOR PEACE. — Randy Miller the life-affirming importance of educa- Building a world tion, more than 100 million children are not in school, nearly 60 million of fit for children them girls. This is the reality that must be Carol Bellamy changed, the reality that we must change. LIKE MILLIONS of other people states, to transform personal commit- Violence against children around the world, I believe that all ments to do what’s right for individual Systematically and routinely, children should be free to grow in children into a public value to do directly and indirectly, the reality of health, peace and dignity. Like millions what’s right for all children. our times exposes young girls and of people, thousands of organisations The reality of life for millions of boys in every region of the world to and scores of governments, I am com- children who live in every region of violence and abuse. Sometimes the mitted to building a world where the world conflicts with our beliefs violence is overt and extreme, as every child, without exception, will and our vision, and challenges every when children are deliberate targets know such freedom. But the cause of step of our strategy. Despite the rich- of war, when they are abducted to children goes beyond the interests of ness of the world’s resources, nearly serve in rogue armies, when they are children only, for it is clear that only if 600 million children live in absolute kidnapped for the purposes of sexual the international community and nations are successful in protecting all children can there be any hope of sus- taining peace and security throughout RANDY MILLER the world. We at UNICEF have a vision of what a world fit for children would look like: healthy families supported by healthy communities as they create safe and loving spaces for their chil- dren. Children growing strong, enjoy- ing the fullness of childhood, learning and interacting in an ever-widening circle within their societies, and preparing for ever-expanding roles as agents of their destiny. A strategy and a plan We have a strategy. Ensure that every child has the best possible start in life. Ensure that every child com- pletes a basic education of good qual- ‘We at UNICEF have a vision of what a world fit for children would look like: healthy fam- ilies supported by healthy communities as they create safe and loving spaces for children.’ ity. Ensure that every child has ample opportunities to develop their individ- poverty in families that earn less than trafficking. More than 2 million chil- ual capacities and that all children, US$1 a day, and one-quarter of these dren have died due to conflict in the especially adolescents, are empow- children are chronically malnourished. past decade, millions more have been ered to contribute to their societies. Even in the world’s richest countries, maimed physically and psychologically, And a plan. Raise the expectations about 47 million children, one in every and more than 300,000 have lived inti- within the human family that every six, live below national poverty lines. mately with bloodshed and death as individual, government, NGO, civil Despite the existence of vaccines and child soldiers. Today, an estimated 30 society organisation, business, regional other measures that routinely protect million children are the victims of traf- and international agency will take the children in the industrialised world fickers. cause of children’s well-being as one against child-killer diseases, about 10 In May 2000, the United Nations of their own. Move the rights of chil- million children still die each year General Assembly adopted two dren onto every agenda.Work togeth- from diseases that could have been optional protocols, or amendments, er across traditional boundaries, such and should have been prevented. to the 1989 Convention on the Rights as those of social sectors or nation Despite a near-universal consensus on Global Future — Third Quarter, 2001 1 of the Child. One would protect chil- of physical and sexual abuse that more dren under 18 from serving in armed often than not goes undetected, unre- conflict.The other would protect chil- ported or unpunished. In some MIKEL FLAMM dren from being sold, prostituted or regions of the world, girls in particular used in pornography.While 70 nations are victims of systematic female foeti- have already signed each of these cide and female infanticide. In other amendments, signaling their support, regions, violence is subtle and quieter, the protocols have yet to be ratified and often targeted at girls, as young by the requisite number that would children are denied nutritious food, make them legally binding. Together needed health care and the opportu- with United Nations Secretary- nity to go to school. General Kofi Annan, UNICEF urges that nations move swiftly to bring this Despite the richness protection to their children. Less dramatically but no less of the world’s resources, harmfully, violence may be a routine nearly 600 million part of a young child’s life when they children live in absolute are forced by circumstances into exploitative and dangerous work set- poverty. tings long before their bodies are Perhaps most cruel of all (if the ‘The reality of life for millions of children ready and long before they have com- conflicts with our beliefs and our vision, pleted even the most minimal school- effects of violence can be compared) and challenges every step of our strategy.’ ing. Some 50 to 60 million children is the HIV/AIDS epidemic that has between 5 and 14 years old, according robbed more than 4 million young the Children, UNICEF and World to estimates by the International children of life, 13 million of their par- Vision, came together determined to Labour Organisation, work in what ents, and millions more of care and change the way the world views and treats children.