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To 'Truly Universalize' Child Rights Global Community Must Reach Neediest Children in Critical Early Years with Nutrition, Protection, Third Committee Told

Attachments

GA/SHC/3979

Sixty-fifth General Assembly
Third Committee
12th & 13th Meetings (AM & PM)

Head of UN Children's Fund Addresses Committee; also Hears Special Envoys On Children and Armed Conflict, Violence against Children, Sale of Children

To "truly universalize child rights," the world community must reach the neediest children in their early years, with critical nutrition, nurturing, education and child protection, the head of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today.

"Early childhood provides an unparalleled window of opportunity to make a lasting difference - and we must seize it," said Anthony Lake, as he addressed the Committee on the first day of its discussion on the promotion and protection of the rights of children.

Research showed that investing in early childhood interventions, focused where they were most needed, resulted in the best long-term outcome and a more equitable world, he said. Through an "integrated approach," efforts could be focused on nutrition, breastfeeding and nurturing, birth registration, education and child protection, relying on bottom-up innovation and delivery at the community level to those greatest in need.

"What better way to reduce inequities than to reach the neediest children in the critical early years when we know we can have the greatest impact?" he asked.

To help delegates think about the importance of such early intervention, he asked them to imagine a courtroom somewhere, into which a newborn baby was brought before a stern judge, who sentenced the child to die or, at best, to a live with deprivation and disease. Such a thing was "unimaginable," he said, and, yet, that was what happened to millions of children in the world's poorest and most disadvantaged places.

"Through inattention, through inaction, through simple ignorance, when we fail to reach those children in the first days and years of their young lives, we slam down the gavel on their future," he said. "So much depends on those moments and months. It is up to all of us, not a fictional judge, to make the most of them."

Mr. Lake was among several top United Nations Officials who appeared today as the Committee took up its agenda item on the promotion and protection of the rights of children, including the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children in Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy; the Special Representative on Violence Against Children, Marta Santos Pais; and the Chair of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, Yanghee Lee; and the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, Najat M'jid Maalla. All but Ms. Lee had a discussion period with Member States.

Discussing the effects of violence on younger children - "the theme this year" - Ms. Pais said that violence left dramatic scars and lifelong consequences, compromising children's development, learning abilities and school performance, as well as provoking low self-esteem, emotional distress and aggressive behaviour.

"Younger children are at special risk, having less ability to speak up and seek support and also greater chances of suffering irreversible emotional and health damage," she said.

While answering the questions of the representatives of Malaysia and Chile regarding addressing root causes that facilitated violence, she stated that poverty was one of the main factors, because the lack of access to social services created conditions that more often led to violence, which was why support to poor families with young children was necessary and the theme of narrowing disparities early in a child's life was so critical.

Delegates from twenty-four countries also took the floor this morning to continue their debate on the advancement of women. Underlining that many of the challenges to gender equality and women's empowerment were due to a lack of economic resources, many of the representatives, such as Swaziland, El Salvador, and Nepal, called for the international community to invest more in the form of additional financial and technical assistance to developing countries.

Also speaking this morning on the advancement of women were the representatives of Bangladesh, Turkey, Poland, Slovenia, Eritrea, Bhutan, Tunisia, India, Georgia, Malta, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Mauritania, Iceland, Timor-Leste, Gabon, Sri Lanka, Montenegro, Peru, the Philippines, and Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The Committee will meet again at 10 a.m. on Thursday, 14 October, to continue its discussions on the advancement of women, as well as the rights of children.