fyi ...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 20:18:22 +0100
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: World's children betrayed

Dear All

Please find an Agence France-Presse report on the 'betrayal' of the
World's children below.  see http://www.unicef.org/newsline/01pr70.htm for
the press release this story is based upon.


REPORT:

U.N. member countries have "betrayed" the world's children by failing to
honor commitments made at the 1990 World Summit for Children, UNICEF
Director Carol Bellamy said in a report released yesterday.

Objectives set at the 1990 summit included reducing infant and maternal
mortality and malnutrition, increasing access to safe drinking water and
waste disposal, providing universal education and protecting children in
"difficult circumstances," such as refugees and sexually abused children.

UNICEF said in its report yesterday that infant mortality has fallen 14
percent, well below a 33 percent target; 172 children die in Africa for
every 1,000 live births, compared with the world average of 81 per 1,000
live births; and "no change" has occurred in the frequency of maternal
mortality, which claims one woman in 16 in the 49 least developed
countries.  The organization called for more action to raise HIV/AIDS
awareness, combat racial discrimination and sexual exploitation and
implement vaccination programs.

The report's release yesterday came before what had been next Wednesday's
scheduled start of a U.N. special session on children in New York.  The
session has been indefinitely postponed following Tuesday's terrorist
attacks on the United States (Agence France-Presse, Sept. 13).