DROITS DE L’ENFANT
VINGTIÈME ANNIVERSAIRE DE LA CONVENTION

VÉRONIQUE TAVEAU, UNICEF

Le 20 novembre 2009, la communauté internationale célébrait les 20 ans de la Convention internationale des droits de l’enfant. A Genève, dans le cadre des activités culturelles du Palais des Nations, les jeunes de l’orchestre de la Suisse romande présentaient un concert placé sous le thème de la paix et de la défense des droits des enfants.
En vingt années d’existence la Convention a transformé la perception que l’on a des enfants et la manière de les traiter. Pour l’UNICEF, pour nos partenaires des Nations Unies, pour tous ceux qui travaillent à nos cotés, partenaires publics ou privés, pour tous les défenseurs des droits des enfants qui chaque jour oeuvrent à faire que la défense des droits des enfants soient une réalité sur le terrain, ce 20e anniversaire n’est pas seulement une date, un simple événement, il doit marquer un vrai tournant. Philip O’Brien directeur de la Division des partenariats et collectes de fonds à l’UNICEF nous explique pourquoi.

PHILIP D. O’BRIEN, DIRECTOR, PRIVATE FUNDRAISING AND PARTNERSHIPS UNICEF

VÉRONIQUE TAVEAU, UNICEF

Why is it important for UNICEF to make sure that the Celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Convention of the Rights of the Child needs to be more than a “one day wonder”?
The rights of children are not a one ‘day wonder.’ The rights of children are things that need to happen in the world, 365 days a year, every year of a child’s life until they reach 18. So if we were just to acknowledge children’s rights on one day of the year, we would be missing out on an awful lot. The one day celebration must be in some ways tempered a little bit by the 365 days of work that we have got to do next year to actually make sure when we come to the 21st anniversary of the Convention of the Rights of the Child, so more children are enjoying more rights than they did yesterday and today.
During the past two decades, the Convention has transformed the way children are viewed and treated throughout the world, but numerous challenges remain in realizing children’s rights. In 1990 there were 12.5 million children dying before the age of 5. In 2008, that figure is down to 9 million and the trend is that it will continue. We now know that we have got 84/85% of all children in school and the number of children who are out of school in 2002, 115 million, has now fallen to just 100 million in 2007. None of this would have been possible without our partners. This is not just UNICEF, this is all about partnerships and how by working in partnerships we can actually achieve better results for children.

Just a few examples of how things work with our partners – and by partners I mean our engagement with Global Programme partnerships, the corporate sector and with civil society organizations. For example we have a long term partnership with IPU, the International Parliament Union. IPU as all your Geneva based readers know, is the oldest multilateral political organization in the world. It was established 120 years ago and we have partnered with it for many years. It is partially because of the result of that partnership that we have seen such extraordinary strides in legislative reforms in putting protective measures into national legislation that draw on the Convention of the Rights of the Child. They have the mandate of all governments accountable to their obligations to children. Over the last six years, our joint activities with them have included a special child protection parliamentary forum on the occasion of the UN General Assembly Special Session on children and we have developed with them hand books for parliamentarians on child issues like child protection, child trafficking, juvenile justice and violence against children.This is one example.

Could you give an example where companies are assisting UNICEF in ensuring children’s rights are realized?
One of our very important partnerships, not just in terms of the money generated for programmes for children but in the way it has approached the area of child protection and children’s rights is our partnership with IKEA. Over the past ten years they have committed more than $180 million in both cash and in kind donations to UNICEF’s programmes making them our largest corporate donor. But as importantly as that money, through IKEA’s Social Initiative (the division within IKEA responsible for managing their commitment to investments in social programs on a global level) they have been a key supporter of work that we are doing to prevent hazardous child labour , and ensure children go to school. IKEA has joined UNICEF to tackle this issue at its root cause and in the countries where they are sourcing some of their products. They have also put in place a strong code of conduct for their suppliers and have made a public commitment to fight for and advocate for children’s rights.

A number of our partners have helped us in different ways. It is not just a cash grant to do something but for example, with a number of them, we have stand by arrangements whereby they make capacity available to our organization when we are stretched and we are often nearly always stretched at the onset of an emergency. We get contributions from airlines of free flight capacity to move supplies. There is a whole variety of ways of which businesses doing their own business, and using their own expertise can actually help and respond to. So perhaps more than in the development end of our business, our partnerships with the private sector have a longer and more precise form when we talk about emergency and humanitarian response.

The private sector has become an increasingly important stakeholder in development through global partnerships for health, education and HIV and AIDS in particular. Private sector partners have demonstrated strong support for the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The range of corporate partnerships that UNICEF has, is multiple and diverse - all to help us achieve our vision of a world where the rights of every child are realised. They range from the once in a while philanthropic donation to a bigger global partnership like for example the one we have with P&G (Procter and Gamble) and their Pampers brand. The Pampers UNICEF cause related marketing campaign aims to not just help one mother or one child the real goal of the partnership is to drive the elimination of maternal and neonatal tetanus by 2012 – that’s the global goal agreed by the WHO and UNICEF – and it’s a longer term commitment by Pampers and that is a different sort of budget. But I think by and large even the one off donation can also be used in such a way that it does make a substantial beneficial impact for children.

Could the current financial crisis impact on child rights?
It could, it does, and it is. There is no doubt about it. 2009 has been marked by the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression eighty years ago. It is a combination of the financial crisis and the food crisis. And there are a number of different ways in which that is happening. First of all, there is a fair amount of evidence collected by UNICEF, showing that the food price crisis has forced an awful lot of people, an awful lot of families, into a greater degree of poverty. Children are having less access to food, and nutrition. Their nutritional state is under threat. Young girls, children whose economic activity could be beneficial to families are often pulled out of school. And that is going to continue as long as the financial crisis does continue. And it is absolutely clear.

The international economic context is crucial for child rights because it forms an integral part of the external environment that influences the actions of all those entrusted with the care and protection of children. Strains on household, corporate and governments budgets are threatening spending on services and commodities essential to children’s rights to survival, development protection and participation.

Yet our regular donors (the people who give us money every month for twelve months of the year), the numbers of those have increased over the 12-18 months, which is very good. And the amounts of money we are getting from that source, which is unrestricted money, it’s money that the Organization can use as it sees fit has also increased. Not by huge amount but certainly by enough to give us a sense of confidence that this can continue over the next 12-18 months. But! We do not know, about 2010, 2010 is very uncertain from an income point of view, a very uncertain period to which we are going now. The financial and economic crisis have, I think, opened a debate on global social and economic priorities, and in the months to come, we all need to make sure that children must be at the heart of our thinking on climate change, on the food crises, and that we all need to ensure that the vision of the Convention becomes a reality for every child.