A world fit for children means all children, Mrs. Mubarak
Regional, Culture, 5/13/2002

The Egyptian First Lady Suzanne Mubarak, head of Egypt's delegation to the UN General Assembly's Special Session on Children, said that Egypt was well prepared for the session after hosting the African Child Conference in May last year to formulate a unified African stance on childhood.

In an interview from New York with the 'Good Morning Egypt' TV program yesterday, Mrs. Mubarak said that the position of childhood in Egypt is strong and that every Egyptian is proud of the achievements made over the last decade in development and prosperity for our children in all sectors.

Mrs. Mubarak said it was her duty to speak up for Palestinian children during the session. She said she had a heartfelt responsibility to talk about the tragic conditions borne by Palestinian children, wives and mothers. Her speech called upon the participants at the international gathering to stand up for those children, because if we aim for 'a world fit for children' it must be fit for all children.

Mrs. Mubarak said that a paper would be distributed during the session giving guidelines on how to address the issue of Palestinian children without politicising it. She said her speech revealed the real position of Palestinian and African children and dealt honestly with the achievements that have been made and the problems still faced.

Mrs. Mubarak said that the participating countries have presented an evaluative view of achievements in the field of childhood over the past decade. They are seeking to agree on a plan of future action supporting efforts to protect the rights of children throughout the world. She said that despite all the achievements millions of children still suffer from a lack of education and annually increasing infant mortality rates, due to a shortage of vaccines and the spread of AIDS, especially in Africa.

Egypt's First Lady called for more international co-operation and solidarity to secure resources and funds to promote childhood, particularly among rich Western countries who have pledged to allocate a proportion of their national incomes for needy countries.

Mrs. Mubarak stressed that there is an international belief today in the importance of women's roles in leading the movement for social development. She said that the first ladies participating in the session have proved themselves on a world level through their work, interests and the changes they have brought about in their countries.

She said that every First Lady at the session had talked about their experiences and achievements. After a long struggle, the world now acknowledges that they are a positive force for social work, particularly in the fields of childhood and motherhood.

The summit approved a new blueprint late on Friday to improve young people's lives over the next decade, overcoming objections from the United States and Islamic nations on family planning and the death penalty.

Participants adopted the final summit document, 'A World Fit For Children' with consensus and a round of applause.

Delegates agreed on 21 new goals in the broad areas of health, education, combating AIDS, and protecting children against abuse, exploitation and violence.

Throughout this week's meeting, the United States has toed a conservative line, pushing abstinence as the preferred approach to sex education, opposing any hint of abortion for adolescents, and balking at the terms of a global treaty on children's rights that prohibits the execution of children.

This meant Washington was in line with the Vatican and Islamic nations on the conference's thorniest issues. The final compromise jettisoned the term "reproductive health services", which some Bush administration delegates said implied abortion. The new wording is "reproductive health".

In a concession to Islamic nations, delegates agreed to allow a paragraph on families to include differences in "cultural and traditional" practices. This formulation in the past has been a veiled reference to customs allowing husbands to control wives and their reproductive freedom. The plan also dropped a US demand that marriage be included in a section on the family, one diplomat said.

More than 60 presidents and prime ministers, mainly from developing nations, as well as a host of other high-ranking officials, attended the meeting. For the first time, some 560 children were allowed to participate as delegates at a UN summit, while 1,700 representatives from non-governmental groups participated in events surrounding the conference.

The children's conference is a follow-up to a 1990 summit that aimed at setting guidelines for governments, advocacy groups and UN agencies on children's education and health.

Many of those targets have not been met, primarily due to lack of funds. Since then, the issues of AIDS and child protection have emerged as critical problems for children.

Previous Stories:
  King Mohammed deplores Iraqi and Palestinian children sufferings   (5/11/2002)
  Morocco to host Euro-Mediterranean meeting on child's rights   (5/10/2002)
  Mrs. Mubarak at UN children's session: Have we lost our conscience?   (5/9/2002)

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