UNICEF Italy Calls for More Actions to Protect Children's Rights

The Italian government must implement a concrete action plan to promote children's rights in the country, said Vincenzo Spadafora, President of United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Italy, on Thursday.

Friday marks the celebration of Universal Children's Day and the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. More than 150 events are planned worldwide.

The Italian committee for UNICEF staged a commemorative event named "The Winds of UNICEF" on Thursday.

At the opening of the ceremony, Spadafora urged all countries, including Italy, to do more for children's well-being and rights. "We are living a social emergency, often underestimated," he said.

Spadafora criticized the fact that concrete laws, action plans and an infancy ombudsman are still missing from the Italian legislation.

"Even in Italy, there is a lack in basic children's needs, and I appeal to the government to increase efforts and financial resources," he said, adding that it is crucial to always keep the infancy issue at the top of both the national and global agenda, not only when there are commemorative events.

Spadafora also called for a major contribution from civil society, public opinion and even youths themselves in securing a better future for Italian and world children.

He presented the special edition of the annual report, The State of the World's Children, to discuss the achievements over the past two decades.

Despite efforts and successes in promoting children's rights, the state of global infancy remains unstable, and more needs to be done, the report said.

Rome's former mayor Walter Veltroni also took part in the celebration. When he was in office, Veltroni made frequent trips to Africa to assist the local population and contribute to the building of school villages.

He even led a delegation of Italian scholars to Mozambique and Rwanda.

For this occasion, the album "The Rights of Children" was presented by one of UNICEF's leading photographers, Giacomo Pirozzi. The album contained pictures of suffering and exploited children.

The participants in the video-contest "A Moment of Rights," jointly sponsored by UNICEF and the Italian state television RAI, were awarded prizes.

Three Italian schools won the contest, and several students and their teachers were present at the event.

The videos focused on children's rights and on the obligation Italian children felt to take part in this global issue. RAI contributed to the anniversary with a TV spot, highlighting children's needs.

According to the UN report, 20 years after the adoption of the convention guaranteeing children's rights, an estimated 1 billion children still lack services essential to their survival and development.

However, a lot of progress has been achieved. The number of deaths of children under age 5 has dropped from around 12.5 million in 1990 to an estimated 8.8 million in 2008, a 28 percent decline. Plus, there has been an increase in the number of children attending primary school.

The UN report added that the gender divide has decreased, and important steps have been taken to help protect children from serving as soldiers or being trafficked into prostitution or domestic servitude.

The age of children getting married is rising in some countries, and the number of girls subjected to genital cutting is gradually falling.

But in many countries, even in industrialized ones, children's rights are still far from being assured, such as the right to health and assistance.

More than 24,000 children under five still die every day from largely preventable causes like malnutrition and infections such as malaria. Millions of children, especially in Asia and Africa, lack access to good health care, adequate nutrition, education, clean water, sanitation facilities and adequate shelter.

"This anniversary represents a great occasion to spread further awareness on infancy rights and involve those who still underestimate the importance of the issue," Spadafora declared.

The Italian President Giorgio Napolitano sent a letter for the event, stressing the "need to increase the full implementation of children's rights through concrete actions."

(Xinhua News Agency November 20, 2009)