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UN spl session sets 21 new goals for children

AFP, United Nations
UN member states unanimously adopted a 21-point plan of action for the coming decade Friday night, to improve the health and education of children worldwide and protect them from abuse and the threat of HIV/AIDS.
"I am enormously proud and pleased at what has been accomplished this week," said Carol Bellamy, director of the UN Children's Fund UNICEF at the close of a three-day special session of the UN General Assembly.
"If leaders keep the promises they have made, we can bring about enormous positive change in the world in less than a generation." The plan was part of a 24-page document, "A World Fit For Children," focussing on four priorities: promoting healthy lives; quality education for all; protecting children from abuse, exploitation and violence; and combating HIV/AIDS.
The special session, attended by representatives from more than 180 countries, was called to assess progress towards 10-year targets
that were adopted at the first world summit on children in 1990, many of which remained unmet.
The new plan set targets for 2010, notably to reduce by at least one third the mortality rates of infants and children under five, and of mothers after children.
Even so, Britain's minister for children and young people, John Denham, told the Assembly these were too timid to ensure the success of meeting the UN's Millennium goals of slashing child mortality by two-thirds by 2015 and maternal mortality of three-quarters.
Earlier, Britain's finance minister, Gordon Brown, called for an international trust fund to quadruple development aid pledges made in Mexico in March so as to reach 50 billion dollars a year.
Non-governmental organisations, for their part, criticised the statement of principles in other parts of the document, saying European nations had given away too much in negotiations with representatives of the conservative administration of US President George W Bush.
Delegates worked until nearly
dawn on Friday, and then again until late in the evening, to iron out difficulties over wording on reproductive health which US officials said could be construed as abortion to the definition of the family, and even to capital punishment.
Bellamy told reporters UNICEF was "very comfortable" with the result.
But, she said, a UN conference was "not a success or a failure depending on whether it has an outcome document, it is a success or failure depending on what happens after it."
The decade that followed the 1990 summit had seen some successes, including the neareradication of polio, and some moderate progress towards goals such as a one-third reduction in mortality among children under five, she said.
But 11 million children a year still die of wholly preventable diseases, and hundreds of millions still lived in great poverty, she added.
"There were more promises than
action," she said. "If we've learned anything it's that there has to be follow-up."
Bellamy said the three-day session achieved much because it included about 300 child delegates, including two girls who made history on Wednesday when they became the first people under the age of 18 to address the UN General Assembly.
The children "made an enormous impact on everyone who met with them, from heads of government on down," she said.
"They presented a very clear and united view of their aspirations and their expectations. I can't imagine ever going back to summits on children's issues without young people there to represent their own experiences, views, and outlook."
During the conference, Microsoft chief Bill Gates pledged 50 million dollars to a five-year scheme to improve the health of children in poor countries by fortifying basic foods with vitamins and minerals.
Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo told the Assembly that money saved from a 20 per cent cut in military spending would be invested in nutrition, health, education and justice for people living in poverty.
Main points of action plan 1. Reduce infant and under-five mortality rate by at least one third, in pursuit of the goal of reducing it by two-thirds by 2015;
2. Reduce maternal mortality ratio by at least one third, in pursuit of the goal of reducing it by three-quarters by 2015;
3. Reduce malnutrition among children under five years of age by at least one third, with special attention to children under two years of age, and reduce rate of low birth weight by at least one third of the current rate;
4. Reduce proportion of households without access to hygienic sanitation facilities and affordable and safe drinking water by at least one third;
5. Develop and implement national early childhood development policies and programmes;
6. Develop and implement national health policies and programmes for adolescents;
7. Access through the primary health-care system to reproductive health for all individuals of appropriate ages as soon as possible and no later than 2015.
8. Expand and improve comprehensive early childhood care and education, for girls and boys, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged;
9. Halve the number of primary school-age children who are out of school and increase net primary school enrollment or participation in alternative, good quality primary education programmes to at least 90 per cent by 2010;
10. Eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005 and achieve gender equality in education by 2015;
11. Improve all aspects of the quality of education, especially in numeracy, literacy and essential life skills;
12. Ensure that the learning needs of all young people are met through access to appropriate learning and life skills programmes;
13. Achieve a 50 percent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women.
14. Protect children from all forms of abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence;
15. Protect children from the impact of armed conflict and forced displacement;
16. Protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation, including paedophelia, trafficking, and abduction;
17. Take immediate and effective measures to eliminate the worst forms of child labour as defined in International Labour Organization Convention No 182;
18. Improve the plight of millions of children who live under especially difficult circumstances.
19. By 2003, establish time-bound national targets to achieve the internationally agreed global prevention goal to reduce by 2005 HIV prevalence among young men and women aged 15 to 24 in the most affected countries by 25 percent and by 25 percent globally by 2010;
20. By 2005, reduce the proportion of infants infected with HIV by 20 per cent, and by 2010 reduce it by 50 percent;
21. By 2003 develop and by 2005 implement national policies and strategies to build and strengthen governmental, family and community capacities to provide a supportive environment for orphans and girls and boys infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.