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| Kathmandu, Tuesday April 23, 2002 Baishakh 10, 2059. |
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Emergency and global movement
for children
By DR GOPAL KRISHNA SIWAKOTI
The tragic circumstances surrounding the
destruction of the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon unfolded around us resulting in a
global state of emergency and nothing will ever be the same. The Special Session of the UN
on Children was the first casualty of the aviation attacks. It was suspended temporarily,
and now will be reconvened in May 2002. Within the past decade, as discussions began
concerning the convening of the Special Session on children, several other new emergency
situations have evolved throughout the globe. Blending the specificity of the Summit
document with addressing the following contemporary issues of emergency concern could
provide a useful operational framework grounded in the responsibility and accountability
of a
home government and the international community.
First emergency: The internal armed conflict is
on the rise in every corner of the globe. This siphons scarce resources meant for primary
education, vaccination, nutrition and housing for security purpose. Also children receive
the lowest priority in safety, security, relief and rebuilding the war-torn society. Often
they are abused and neglected and are deprived of humanitarian support. No child ever
started a war. Yet every time a war breaks out, children as the most vulnerable members of
society suffer the worst. Some lose their lives. Some lose beloved family members. The
international community has long recognized that children have no place in wars, yet
children are still victimised. Nepal is not an exception to the escalating crisis. Many
children are even forced to fight in the conflict. When we think of war crimes, we tend to
forget crimes against children. The rehabilitation and reintegration of children is often
neglected and has never been the central issue to peace-building process.
Second emergency: Children are the victims of
environmental emergencies like global warming and the water crisis that take their
greatest toll on children. In Nepal, statistics show that water-borne diseases and a lack
of safe water cause the preventable deaths and illnesses of thousands of children. We must
preserve our natural resources even as we use them, to ensure our children’s rights
to a healthy environment. All children must enjoy the highest attainable standard of
health, especially through sanitation, proper housing and a safe and healthy environment.
Children are dying of measles and tetanus, both of which can be prevented with a simple
immunization. To address this and to try to save newborn lives, we must begin caring for
children as early as possible.
Third emergency: When no effort is made to allow
disabled children equal access to opportunity, that too is a state of emergency. Whenever
a child, anywhere, is made to feel that he or she is inferior to other children, that is
not only a discrimination but a grave humanitarian crisis. Children must be taught to be
tolerant and live without fear or hate or prejudice. We must leave no child out. The
government including individuals, non-governmental organisations, religious groups, the
private sector, and children and adolescents themselves must meet their obligations to
children and young people.
Fourth emergency: Children and adolescents and
their families must be protected from the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS. The epidemic
deprives children of their most basic rights. All children have the right to the
healthiest possible start in life. The death of the mother jeopardizes the life of the
child. Children whose mothers have died are more likely to die themselves before their
second birthday. Children must know how to help prevent illness and poor health, and
follow the principles of good hygiene. Every child has the right to grow up in a safe and
nurturing environment. Children rely on adults for protection and guidance. So when adults
harm and exploit children, it is the most egregious betrayal of trust imaginable. Whether
in the home, school, streets, or workplace, a child should never be subject to harm. The
violence and abuse that children suffer must be stopped.
Fifth emergency: The use of child soldiers is
nothing new to this region and Nepal cannot be seen in isolation. The mobilisation and
recruiting of under age youngster to fight in wars, is a cruel form of exploitation of
children. Children are mobilised deliberately, their spirit fired to bear arms and undergo
military training, and they are actually sent to the battle fronts. In Nepal, reports have
revealed that children of the age of as low as 10 are forced to join the rebel groups and
use artillery and gun. Although Article 38 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child
limits the age of 15 for recruitment, but in practice, much younger children are used as
soldiers and messengers to the detriment of their mental and physical health and safety.
Sixth emergency: The problem of child
prostitution in the form of sex labour is rampant in the country and is becoming even more
emergency with the spread of AIDS. Although poverty is often linked with child
prostitution, it cannot be seen as the sole cause. The fact that parents are at times
willing to sell their children into this trade indicates a deeper malaise in the society,
namely the treatment of people as commodities for the purpose of consumerism, and the
decline of ethics and disintegration of the family system. The scenario is intricately
linked with supply and demand factors. The other side of the coin is that there is
systematic and individual criminality, coupled with the corruption of law-enforcement
officials, all of whom profit from prostitution. At the very worst, children are abducted,
drugged and coerced by gangs and syndicates into forced prostitution both locally and
across frontiers.
Seventh emergency: Trafficking in children is an
alarming state of emergency in Nepal. Traffickers primarily target women and girls, who
are disproportionately affected by poverty, the lack of access to education, chronic
unemployment, discrimination, and the lack of economic opportunities. Traffickers lure
women and girls into their networks through false promises of decent working conditions at
relatively good pay as nannies, maids, dancers, factory workers, restaurant workers, sales
clerks, or models. Traffickers also buy children from poor families and sell them into
prostitution or into various types of forced or bonded labour.
Eighth emergency: Child portering is another
state of emergency related to children and young people. A myth seems to have been created
that porters are super-human. The massive weights the child porters carry, the cold and
the high altitudes, heat and the dust are nothing to them. This is a madness. Child
porters believe they are simply seen as beasts of burden. They suffer humiliation upon
humiliation and are treated as less than human. In many instances, the way the child
porters are treated amounts to modern slavery. Child porters are usually from
poverty-stricken families. They are forced to work without insurance, without proper
clothing and for very few wages. They get next to nothing if they are injured or disabled
while working. It is time to change. Children must be emancipated from this unfair and
inhumane workload.
Global Movement for Children (GMC) The new wave
of GMC is launched as an accumulation of people and organisations around the world
dedicated to promoting the rights of the child and to fight against the above emergencies.
The GMC is a force for change, calling for people throughout the world to take action
against these and other emergencies. We all have a role to play — leaders and
citizens, public and private organisations, children and young people.
The core of the GMC will be adults and children,
working together. It will not be enough for adults to change the world for children —
they must change the world with children. The GMC realises that the decisions it makes
will affect children’s lives. Children, therefore, must participate in every step of
the decision-making processes. Through this campaign, children and adults from around the
world are able to speak out on ten imperative actions which must be undertaken in order to
improve the lives of children. ‘Say Yes for Children’ is continuing with renewed
energy.
The GMC calls on everyone, everywhere, to do as
much as possible, in their own time and their own way, for children. In every child who
comes into the world, the hopes and dreams of the human race are born anew. For the world
has the knowledge, the resources and the legal imperatives to give every child the best
possible start in life, in a family environment that offers the love, the care and the
nurturing that children need to grow, to learn and to develop to the fullest.
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