UNICEF celebrates 60 years of helping children with plaudits and calls to do more

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), set up after the devastation of World War II to provide food and blankets to millions, celebrated its 60th anniversary today with a special meeting of the General Assembly at which Secretary-General Kofi Annan and others paid tribute to the agency’s tireless work for the world’s most vulnerable.

“I have been privileged to meet UNICEF colleagues all around the world. I have seen them do great things for children, on all continents, against all odds. They have given a voice to those children who need it most,” Mr. Annan said in a message delivered by the Under-Secretary-General at the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management, Chen Jian.

“…UNICEF’s emergency responses have saved the lives of millions of children caught up in wars and natural disasters. Health programmes have saved millions of children from disease, undernutrition, illness and death. Education programmes have enabled millions to learn what they need to lead full and productive lives.”

Mr. Annan also hailed the agency’s work for the rights of children, which he said is at the heart of the world body’s efforts to attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – a set of time-bound targets aimed at slashing poverty and other social ills, and this theme was built upon by other speakers.

“UNICEF has shown us that children’s right to survival, protection and participation are central to development. We will not be able to achieve the Millennium Development Goals unless we ensure that these fundamental rights of the child are realized,” Assembly President Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa said in an opening statement read out by acting President Mirjana Mladineo.

UNICEF’s advocacy and programming efforts have saved the lives of millions of children over the past 60 years, through global immunization campaigns against polio and other diseases, campaigning for the production of iodized salt to reduce the risk of mental disability caused by iodine deficiency, returning children to school, as well as through many more humanitarian activities.

However despite all the good work, the speakers acknowledged that much more needs to be done, with many calling on Member States to live up to their pledges.

“Too many children still die of preventable diseases, go hungry, are denied their right to an education or are forced into early marriage or hazardous work. Too many children have been orphaned or made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS. And, too many of them will never experience a childhood,” Sheikha Haya said.

“On this sixtieth anniversary of the United Nations Children’s Fund, let us deliver on the promises that we have made in this very Hall to the children of the world,” she added in comments echoed by the UNICEF head herself.

“We are here today to both celebrate the many accomplishments gained over the past 60 years and to build on the momentum of these successes while acknowledging that much more needs to be done to advance and protect the rights of children,” UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman told the audience, which also included young people and Goodwill Ambassador Vanessa Redgrave.

“The world has seen more gains against poverty and more progress for children in the last 60 years than it saw in the previous 500. Between 1960 and 2004, the under-5 mortality rates in developing countries on average decreased from 222 deaths per 1,000 live births to 87 deaths per 1,000 live births,” she said.

“But much remains to be done. We still live in a world in which more than 2 billion people live on $2 a day or less. We live in a world in which over 10 million children under the age of 5 die every year of causes that are largely preventable, such as disease and malnutrition,” Ms. Veneman said.

Before the speakers at today’s commemorative meeting, a video marking 60 years of UNICEF was shown, and other events marking the anniversary include a photo exhibit and multi-media art show entitled, “Mosaic UNICEF,” as well as a celebration with children.

Projected in the lobby of the agency’s Headquarters in New York and running through January, “Mosaic UNICEF” is a multi-media digital display created by world-renowned artists Miguel Chevalier and Emmanuel Mâa Berriet using UNICEF’s photo archives of children as its foundation.

“I hope people understand there is a relationship between the screen and themselves and how they move,” said Mr. Berriet, who created the software for the digital display. “I want people to understand there is a connection between what they do and what happens. This is not just a piece of art, it is a process… The face of children really touches people.”