On Universal Children’s Day, UN says world remains ‘deeply unfair’ place for children
Marking Universal Children’s Day, the United Nations today highlighted that the world remains a “deeply unfair” place for the poorest and most disadvantaged children despite major advances since the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, 26 years ago today.
Giving a fair chance in life to every child, everywhere – especially the most disadvantaged – offers the greatest hope of breaking intergenerational cycles of inequity and poverty in every society. That is the central proposition underlying UNICEF’s ‘equity agenda’.
The principle of equity guides UNICEF’s work with a sharp focus on the world’s most vulnerable children: those from the poorest households, girls, children with disabilities, migrant and refugee children, those living in remote areas, and children from ethnic or religious groups facing discrimination. The following pages build on evidence and experience from this work to make two main arguments for closing persistent gaps in equity.
First, the cycle of inequity is neither inevitable nor insurmountable. UNICEF works to break that cycle by tackling inequities in opportunity for children who have been marginalized. That means supporting interventions to give these children a good start in life and continuing to intervene at key points during their early childhood and adolescence. Making such investments not only changes the future of the most disadvantaged children but also charts a new course for their children.
Second, the cost of inaction is too high. Failing to invest sustainably in essential services and protection for every child does not just deny today’s children their rights but will have detrimental effects for generations to come. Failing to seize critical windows of opportunity in the lives of the most vulnerable children now will incur higher costs later. These costs will be felt in terms of lost lives, wasted potential and reduced productivity. In the end, inaction will contribute to social and economic inequities affecting entire societies and will slow or reverse global development progress.
This report outlines many of the milestones achieved for the world’s poor and marginalized children to date, as well as many of the remaining gaps. It examines seven sectors that are critical to progress for children: health; HIV and AIDS; water, sanitation and hygiene; nutrition; education; child protection; and social inclusion. In each sector, there are stark contrasts between global advances on one hand and the urgent, unmet needs of the world’s most vulnerable children on the other.
Beyond facts and figures, the report also features selected stories about children and families who have not shared equally in those advances – and about what UNICEF and its partners are doing to right the balance. The stories highlight equity-focused approaches to both humanitarian crises and longer-term development, because action on both fronts will be needed to achieve the newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals.
As policymakers chart pathways for the post-2015 era, the time has come to invest sustainably in equity for the most disadvantaged. For every child, a fair chance sets out UNICEF’s vision for equity and demonstrates the positive, concrete impact of equity-based programmes. Above all, the report underscores why equity is so important: because all children have the right to survive, thrive and reach their full potential, whoever they are and wherever they live.
http://www.unicef.org/publications/index_86269.html
Direct Link to Full 48-Page 2015 Report:
http://www.unicef.org/publications/files/For_every_child_a_fair_chance.pdf
Извор: WUNRN – 23.11.2015
