2008-10-14 GENERAL HOUSE

Child Rights and the Millennium Development Goals

On the 2nd October the CRIN (Child Rights Information Network) issued a special edition dedicated to the Millennium Development Goals.
What are the Millennium Development Goals?
The MDGs are the time-bound targets of a global partnership the world leaders committed their nations to in order to reduce extreme poverty. The United Nations Millennium Declaration was signed by leaders of 189 countries on 8th September 2000 at the United Nations Headquarter in New York.

The MDGs, should they be achieved successfully, will bring benefit to the world population including children, but in some cases directly refer to children:
* Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
* Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education (and ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling)
* Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women (and eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education)
* Goal 4: Reduce child mortality (and in particular: reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five)
* Goal 5: Improve maternal health
* Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases (spread knowledge and promote prevention among young people, increase the ratio of school attendance of orphans, allow children access to proper medical treatments)
* Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
* Goal 8: Promote a Global Partnership for Development

According to the UN ?the goals are achievable, they have timelines and deadlines; they are locally defined and measurable. For the first time, there is an agreed global compact in which rich and poor countries recognize that they share the responsibility to end poverty and its root causes?.

The CRIN article intends to broaden the understanding of the MDGs and highlights their correspondence with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It also reports comments, evaluations and criticisms about the real impact the MDGs have had so far on the condition of children, quoting international experts, civil society organizations and official reports.

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* Download the complete text – Special edition on the MDGs
* Read more on www.crin.org
* Convention on the Rights of the Child

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