UN urges help for 1 billion deprived children

(November 20, 2009) The United Nations' Universal Children's Day, which was established in 1954, is celebrated on November 20 each year to promote international togetherness and awareness among children worldwide. UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, promotes and coordinates this special day, which also works towards improving children's welfare. This year UNICEF has urged the world to help the 1 billion children still deprived of food, shelter, clean water or health care _ and the hundreds of millions more threatened by violence, two decades after the U.N. adopted a treaty guaranteeing children's rights. On Thursday the U.N. children's agency issued a report on the challenges ahead and the accomplishments since the U.N. General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989. UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman called a sharp decline in child deaths a remarkable achievement and lauded the increasing number of children attending primary school. More than 70 countries have used the treaty to incorporate children's rights in their national laws. Only two nations, the United States and Somalia, have not ratified it. Veneman said it was unacceptable that more than 24,000 children under the age of 5 die every day from preventable causes like pneumonia, malaria, measles and malnutrition. Children in Africa and Asia suffer the worst, where nine out of 10 children do not attend school and large number dies before the age of 5. Violence against children also remains rampant. Pope Benedict XVI during the Wednesday General Audience has asked prayers for all the children of the world, especially those who suffer, and has urged the international community to be committed in responding to the problems that affect childhood. UNICEF urged countries to put the rights of all children, especially the needy and the suffering, at the centre of their policies and budgets because children are the future.