UNICEF: CHILDREN ARE OUR FUTURE

By Melati Mohd Ariff

KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 (Bernama) -- The Convention of the Rights of the
Child, often referred to as CRC, adopted by the United Nations (UN) General
Assembly on 20th Nov 1989, protects the rights of every children by setting
standards in legal, civil, health care, education and social services.

According to Youssouf Oomar, Unicef (United Nations Children Fund)
representative to Malaysia, the Convention is the tool that has pushed,
propelled and pressurised many countries to relook at what they are
doing for children, in terms of constitutions and also their laws.

"The CRC is for any child, anywhere, anytime, regardless whether the child
has weaknesses, whether the child is disabled, the child has the same right as
every other child.

"As responsible parties, we are to make sure that the right of the child is
respected. We want the child to develop in the best developed condition. Unicef
is mandated by the UN General Assembly to monitor the translation of every
article of the Convention into concrete actions. That is the key," he told
Bernama in an interview at his office here recently.

BETTER TIMES
Oomar who is also Unicef's special representative to Brunei Darussalam added
that the CRC is one of the key reasons that children these days are faring much
better as compared to what they were facing years before.

Unicef, he said, has also developed strategies, one of which, was to work
with everyone, in getting them to understand that the child is a concern for
every human being on this planet.

"Any government, any NGOs, any religious societies including the Muslim
ummah have understood that we need to invest more in our children, in terms of
their health, education and care.

"That is why also today you see more people coming out to talk about abuses,
wives being beaten, children being beaten. This is a tedious and relentless
effort so that we can work together with everyone to make them understand that
we have to be a part of the process if we want to build a better society for us.

"I think everyone has realised this but that does not mean we are
there. There are still a lot of bad people around, preying on children,
kidnapping them and hurting the children," said Oomar.

PRIORITISE EDUCATION
Citing education as an example, Unicef, he said started big programmes
around the world to encourage and push children to go to school including
getting governments to make school as compulsory and free.

"We realised there are so many children who are out of school and nobody
cared. But when came the Convention, we said the child has the right to
development and one of the best ways to helping the development of the child is
to get the child to school.

"We make sure every child is in school, even when they are in refugee camps.
A school is a good place to get a child to understand cultures as there are many
children from different background and this promotes social integration. They
can grow together, learning from each other. It promotes better understanding
and eventually respect," said Oomar.

A child, he added, can also become the social change agent as the learning
process in school would empower a child to better understand his or her
surrounding.

The CRC also, he said has changed people's perception on certain
unacceptable practices involving children.

"There was a time when children were just getting beaten, raped. Boys were
getting abused, kidnapped and nobody was doing anything or children were just
sent to work (child labour)and exploited. People took this as just being
culturally accepted.

"As a result we have seen a lot of things happening. For the first time
ever, we had fewer children dying from diseases and today we have more than 60
per cent of children around the world attending school.

"People are realising that the more attention we paid to children, the
better would be the quality of our development in 10 years, 15 years," he said.

WORTHY INVESTMENT
According to Oomar, countries like China, India and Malaysia have been able
to push their economies to grow rapidly and at a very sustainable rate because
they invested in a child.

"India has a huge population and China has even a larger population while
Malaysia, a medium country with about 28 million population. In terms of
education policies, they have some similarities where investing in a child has
been the key factor in the success of the development policies.

"I think I can say that whatever being the conditions now let us remind
ourselves that history has shown us that the day we reduced our investment in
children, we will start realising things would grow bad and worst. So whatever
is the condition, lets keep budgeting for the child," stressed Oomar.

Elaborating further on Malaysia's achievement in education, he said, the
country's investment in that field has definitely helped its economic and social
development.

Malaysia, he added, is an extraordinary example in terms of its achievement
now compared to 20 or 40 years ago.

"But now you need to push the bar higher as you gear towards 2020, of
becoming a first world country. It is not very far, only another 10 years.

"Remember a child who is 10 years now will be 20 years then so the bar is
high in terms of time in the life of a child. And the child grows very fast, the
brain develops very fast and if we do not mould and carve the brain in such a
way that the child would become a future leader, an effective and responsible
leader, that vision will not be achieved.

"That same child in 10 years time, if he or she is not given a better world
or a better Malaysia, they will look back and say you mess up my future," he
said.

MORE COMMITMENT
Oomar said children from 13 years of age and above should be given more
chance to speak their mind.

As he emphasised, "it is part of the Convention that we want to listen a bit
more to children, listen to their views, start having a dialogue with them,
share their views and let them express their opinion and understand that they
are part of the development process.

"These are some of the mistakes we learnt from the past when we did not
listen to our children by just telling them that their job is just to go to
school. But if you do not tell them now, they will go to the Internet to get any
answer and they may pick up something which may not be the answer," he argued.

In saying Malaysia is on the right track of development, he described social
problems still plaguing the country as similar to what is being faced by other
middle-income nations.

He said Malaysia has successfully reduced the number of people dying from
preventable diseases and also increased the percentage of children going to
school which has crossed 97 per cent.

"But still, you need to be concerned for the other 3.0 per cent. Who are
they? Where are they? Why they are not going to school because this is their
right?

"Malaysia also has the issue of people living below the poverty line. Who
are these poor? Where are they? You also have the city poor category. Again we
have to understand why they are poor. Is it because they have left their
villages because of the strong pull to the cities?

"I know the Malaysian government is addressing these issues. It is in the
Ninth Malaysian Plan and there are some very good signs which can help to sort
out these issues," he said.

CHALLENGES ABOUND
Almost 20 years after the CRC was adopted and despite some major
improvement, Oomar said the 'journey' of the Convention is far from over.

"We are not there yet. Yes, we have been able to advance the child agenda.
We have learnt so much in advancing that agenda, we have learnt some of the good
practices, some of the weaknesses. We have seen failures but that does not mean
we are discouraged.

"For many reasons, the road is still long. The world is evolving. As you
keep addressing problems, you need to prioritise and there are also newly
emerging issues that you need to address at the same time," explained Oomar.

He explained that Unicef has been implementing the CRC in stages as it did
not have the means to do everything in a short time.

Despite having almost US$2 billion for its global programmes, Unicef still
needs a lot more. Oomar explained that most of the funds goes to cater for
emergencies in countries such as Congo, Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sri
Lanka.

At times, he said, a simple conflict, civil strife or a natural calamity
like the Tsunami could destroy all the progress and benefits accomplished by
Unicef.

"When there is a crisis that is where we have to cater for the most
vulnerable group because this is the category of human who cannot fend for
themselves.

"We make sure that whatever is the condition, and Unicef which helps a lot
of countries around the world, the child still goes to school and there would be
food in the school. At least this would attracts poor parents to send their kids
to school.

"These are some of the things that we are grasping. It is not easy
especially when there is an economic crisis as donors who used to give money
would not give so much now," said Oomar.

Oomar also spoke about climatic change which to him should be a concern for
all as changes in the climate would affect the lives of all people.

"We have suffered from the Tsunami, we have seen floods, we have seen
droughts. We have seen the rising level of sea and impact of global warming. We
have to make this as part of our concern and say I am contributing to all these
so I have to change my behaviour.

"This brings me to the second challenge, which is behavioral change. This
could only be done through education and social mobilisation. The other
challenge is attitude change. We have to work together to respond to those
challenges," said Oomar.
-- BERNAMA