China on Wednesday called for "decisive and coordinated" efforts at
national, regional and global levels to create a brighter future
for children.
The appeal came as Chinese State Councilor Wu Yi was speaking to
the UN General Assembly Special Session on Children, which opened
at the UN headquarters in New York.
"To show concern for children is to show concern for the future of
mankind," said Wu, who is also head of the Chinese delegation to
the special session. "To protect children is to protect our
future."
"We have already ushered in a new century, high and new
technologies are advancing leaps and bounds," she said. "The
enormous strength and huge resources in the hands of mankind for
poverty alleviation and development offers both the possibility and
promises for the further promotion of the survival, protection and
development of children."
"We urgently need to take decisive and coordinated actions at
national, regional and global levels to further implement the
follow-up actions of the World Summit for Children and to
effectively respond to new issues and challenges so as to create a
brighter future for children," she said.
Wu
dwelled on China's proposals for the protection and development of
children.
"First, 'Children first' should be the basic principle for child
development," she said. "The interests of children should come
first at all times."
"With the foresight of being responsible for the future
generations, all governments should further incorporate child
development in their national economic and social development
strategies and set their targets and programs for action for child
development in light of their national conditions," she said.
Efforts should be made to strengthen the protection of the
legitimate rights and interests of children, continuously improve
laws and rules and regulations and create a favorable environment
for children's healthy growth, she said.
"In addition, while giving full play to the leading role of the
central government in addressing children's issues, it is necessary
to mobilize all social forces, including nongovernmental
organizations, private sectors, communities and families, to push
for an all-round development of the cause of children," she
said.
"Secondly, the eradication of poverty is the prerequisite for child
development," she said.
"Children are the biggest victims of poverty, and poverty presents
severe challenges to children's dignity and fundamental rights,"
she said. "To solve the question of child development at its root,
it is essential to start with the eradication of poverty."
Therefore, all governments and the international community must
take every possible measure to reduce poverty and provide more and
balanced development and narrow the gap between regions and nations
so that all children will benefit from economic globalization and
technological advancement and that social justice and fairness will
be attained, she said.
"Thirdly, an urgent task for child development is to highlight the
priorities," she said. "We support the current special session in
its effort to set a feasible child development objective and take
corresponding measures targeted at the outstanding issues in the
area of child development in countries, regions and across the
world."
"More attention should be paid to these issues and additional input
should be made in terms of personnel, resources and funds," she
said.
"Fourthly, international cooperation is an important guarantee for
child development," she said.
"Effective international cooperation is indispensable for the
settlement of child issues in the world," she said.
"The developed countries have the responsibility and obligations to
provide funds for the developing countries, transfer technologies
useful to the protection and development of children, the low-cost
disease-preventing technologies in particular, and help strengthen
the capacity building of the developing countries in the field of
child development," she said.
"More importantly, the developed countries should honor their
commitments in terms of fund, technology, debt and trade, create
favorable external development environment for the developing
countries, and narrow the gap between the North and the South so as
to enable the latter to put more resources in the survival,
protection and development of children," she said.
The current special session, scheduled to conclude on Friday, is a
major UN conference focused on global progress for children and the
key role that investment in children can play in building global
peace and security.
(Xinhua News
Agency May 9, 2002)