Volume 3, Number 43

September 22, 2000

Internal UNICEF Memo Reveals Intentions for Child Summit Next Year

By Austin Ruse

     (NEW YORK - C-FAM) An internal memo has come to light that reveals the intentions of UNICEF toward the special session of the UN General Assembly on children scheduled for next fall. Issued by UNICEF executive director Kul Gautam and intended for senior UNICEF staff around the world, the memo reports on the "first substantive session" which met last June in New York in preparation for the Summit.

     "The process leading to the Special Session involves an end-decade review of progress towards the goals of the World Summit for Children from a global, regional and national perspective," Gautam's memo said. "The heart of the review will, of course, be at the country level, where UNICEF is already working with governments and other partners." Gautam's memo asks UNICEF national offices around the world to prepare "reports of national review" by December 30, 2000. These reports will form the basis of the document to be issued by the General Assembly next year.

     The memo reports on the report of the June preparatory committee meeting that ran concurrently with the controversial Beijing+5 meeting. Sometimes it is nearly impossible to know what UN language means. For instance, the memo reports that "Governments, relevant UN agencies, Bretton Woods Institutions, civil society organizations (including unions, the private sector, mass media, universities), should all be actively involved in identifying the most effective ways to achieve sustainable social outcomes for children." "Sustainable social outcomes" is UN-speak that can mean practically anything.

     Though the Convention on the Rights of the Child has been ratified by more than 150 countries, many people are becoming increasingly concerned with how the document is being interpreted by governments, non-governmental organizations and by the UN treaty monitoring system (a system just rejected by the government of Australia). Proposals suggested in the UNICEF memo are certain to raise alarms around the world.

     The memo says "the gap between children's legal rights and their rights in practice must be closed." A benign reading of this would suggest further clamping down on illegal child labor and other abuses. This could also mean that children should be given rights separate from their parents, in education and in the practice of religion, for instance. The report also says that adolescents should have "full access to information on responsible sexual behavior, equitable gender roles and to reproductive and sexual health services." No mention is made here of parents rights. And the UN defines adolescence as beginning at age ten.

     Many have been concerned about attempts to separate children from their parents. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is now being interpreted as giving children complete religious freedom from their parents. The Gautam report says, "children have been most effected.by traditional attitudes under which their status as rights bearers is undermined." "Traditional attitudes" is considered by some as a criticism of religion. The report claims that the school should be at the "center of society," not the family and not the Church.

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