Child Protection in the Light of the Millennium Development Goals. Kenza Bahmed étudiant Doctorat, , Faculté de Droit, Université alger 1, alger
مقال نشر في العدد 19 من مجلة جيل حقوق الانسان الصادر في شهر مايو 2017، ص 105 (حمل من هنا: مجلة جيل حقوق الانسان العدد 19)
Abstract
In September 2000, world leaders gathered in the millennium summit to resolve the global issue is extreme poverty that affects the most vulnerable groups “children”. This summit ended with the adoption of the common document “the millennium declaration”, which contains a statement of values, principles, and objectives for the international 21 Century Agenda. This declaration translated into eight global goals known as “the Millennium Development Goals”. These eight goals are so linked to children and the first six goals contain targets and indicators turn around the main child protection issues; poverty, education, and health care. Fifteen years later, there were several achievements in all the MDGs and child goals, in which many countries and succeeded to decrease underweight children, provide primary education and health care. Besides these achievements, there were various challenges that hinder the accomplishment of all the targets; mostly the big gap between the poor and the rich children and climate change. Thus, world countries are required to work together in order to cope with these challenges by expanding the millennium development goals to the post-2015 universal sustainable development goals in which child protection is at the center of these goals.
Keywords: The millennium summit, the Millennium Development Goals, child protection, sustainable development goals.
الملخص
في سبتمر عام 2000، اجتمع قادة العالم في قمة الألفية من أجل إيجاد حل للمشكل العالمي إلا و هو الفقر المدقع الذي يؤثر على اكثر الفئات ضعفا “الاطفال” . انتهى الاجتماع بتبني الأطراف للوثيقة المعروفة بـــ”بيان الألفية”، الذي يتضمن بيانا للقيم، و المبادئ و كذا أهداف أجندة القرن 21 العالمية. هذا البيان ترجم إلى ثمانية أهداف ، و هي المعروفة بـــــ” الأهداف الإنمائية للألفية”. هذه الأهداف الثمانية هي مرتبطة بشكل وثيق بالأطفال و الأهداف الستة الأولى تتضمن غايات و مؤشرات تدور حول أهم القضايا و المسائل المتعلقة بحماية الطفولة إلا و هي: الفقر، الجوع ، التعليم و الرعاية. بعد خمسة عشر سنة، كان هناك عدة انجازات في الأهداف الإنمائية للألفية و في الاهداف المتعلقة بالأطفال، حيث أن العديد من الدول نجحت تخفيض نسبة الأطفال ناقصي الوزن و توفير التعليم الابتدائي و الرعاية الصحية. إلى جانب تلك الانجازات، كان هناك الكثير من التحديات التي تعيق الاتمام الكامل لكل الغايات، و يأتي في المقام الأول الفجوة الكبيرة بين الأطفال الأغنياء و الفقراء و تغير المناخ . و بالتالي، يستوجب على دول العالم العمل معا من أجل التغلب على هذه المشاكل عن طريق توسيع الأهداف الانمائية للألفية إلى أهداف التنمية المستدامة العالمية لما بعد 2015 التي تكون حماية الطفل مركزا لها.
الكلمات المفتاحية: قمة الألفية، الأهداف الإنمائية للألفية ،حماية الطفل، أهداف التنمية المستدامة.
Introduction
In the late of the 20th century, the world witnessed many challenges. At that time, the world community had focused on economic development that led to many financial crises and the widespread of poverty around the world. This prompted the world political leaders and the United Nations as well to appeal for an international meeting known as “the millennium summit” in 2000. This summit had seen the wide attendance of heads of governments and states and other members of the world community; who signed at the end of the meeting the most common document known as “the millennium declaration”. This latter is considered as the basic source of the millennium development goals.
World leaders gathered at the Millennium summit in order to find solutions to extreme poverty and hunger in the entire world. This dangerous problem has many effects on people’s life areas; education, health, and environment…..arts and children who are considered as the most vulnerable ones and they are exposed to these effects. As it is increasing year after year, the international community must tackle this problem at all levels nationally, regionally and globally, and this requires an international cooperation to work on the global framework, took the form of eight goals drawn from the millennium declaration, with a deadline of 2015.
Thus, to what extent did world countries, in general, succeed to achieve child protection through the millennium development goals?
1-The millennium development goals and child protection
1-1-The millennium summit
On 17 December 1998, the general assembly of the United Nations appealed the world countries to participate in the millennium summit, under its resolution 53/207. The millennium summit was held from 6-8 September 2000; at the United Nations headquarters in New York. In which Algeria and 148 heads of states and government attended, in addition to high-ranking officials from over 40 other countries. This summit ended with the adoption of the common document called” the millennium declaration”, as well as the attendees agreed on eight global goals entitled “The Millennium Development Goals”[1]
The millennium declaration contained a statement of values, principles, and objectives of the 21 International Agenda and the deadlines of many collective actions. In which the head of states and government members reaffirmed their faithfulness to the United Nations and its charter as a vital organization to achieve peace, prosperity, and justice in the entire world. As well as, they confessed on their collective responsibility to support human dignity, equality, and equity as the world leaders’ duty towards all people, particularly children and the most vulnerable ….. By taking into consideration certain fundamental values to be essential to international relations, including freedom, solidarity, tolerance, respect for nature and shared responsibility. [2]
Through adoption of the Millennium Declaration, the world’s countries resolved to strive for the full protection and promotion of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights for all, to Combat all forms of violence against women and implement the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. And to Encourage the ratification and full implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocols on the involvement of children in armed conflict and on the sale of children, child prostitution, and child pornography.[3]
The millennium development goals are eight, it turns around stopping the most global issue which is poverty by 2015.They are respectively (Appendix 1); the first goal is to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by reducing the proportion of hungry people and increasing the employment level and raising wages. The second and third goals are to achieve and promote a universal equality for both genders in primary and secondary education and to empower the role of a woman. The fourth, fifth and sixth goal are around reducing the number of deaths in children, improving maternal health and combating the HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases through providing universal access to a productive health. The seventh goal is to ensure sustainable development; it is discussed in details in the following paragraphs. Finally, the eighth goal is to provide a global partnership for development by developing further and open trading, addressing a special help to the less developed countries, dealing comprehensively with debt problems, providing benefits of new technologies especially information and communication in cooperation with the private sector.
1-2- The link between Child protection and the MDGs
The Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) outlines the fundamental rights of children, including the right to be protected from economic exploitation and harmful work, from all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse, and from physical or mental violence, as well as ensuring that children will not be separated from their family against their will. These rights are further refined by two Optional Protocols, one on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, and the other on the involvement of children in armed conflict.[4]
UNICEF uses the term ‘child protection’ to refer to preventing and responding to violence, exploitation, and abuse against children – including commercial sexual exploitation, trafficking, child labor and harmful traditional practices, such as female genital mutilation/cutting and child marriage. UNICEF’s child protection programs also target children who are uniquely vulnerable to these abuses, such as when living without parental care, in conflict with the law and in armed conflict. Violations of the child’s right to protection take place in every country and are massive, under-recognized and underreported barriers to child survival and development, in addition to being human rights violations. Children subjected to violence, exploitation, abuse and neglect are at risk of death, poor physical and mental health, HIV/AIDS infection, educational problems, displacement, homelessness, vagrancy and poor parenting skills later in life.[5]
Child protection issues intersect with every one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – from poverty reduction to getting children into school, from eliminating gender inequality to reducing child mortality. Most of the MDGs simply cannot be achieved if failures to protect children are not addressed. Child labour squanders a nation’s human capital and conflicts with eradicating extreme poverty (MDG 1); armed conflict disrupts efforts to achieve universal primary education (MDG 2); child marriage leads to the removal of girls from school and thus prevents gender equality (MDG 3); children separated from their mothers, particularly if they remain in institutional settings, are at greater risk of early death, which hinders efforts to reduce child mortality (MDG 4); female genital mutilation/ cutting undermines efforts to maternal health (MDG 5); and sexual exploitation and abuse hamper efforts to combat HI V infection (MDG 6). In addition, environmental disasters make children vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, hence the need for environmental sustainability (MDG 7). Overall, protecting children requires close cooperation between different partners, which consolidates the need for a global partnership for development (MDG 8).[6]
1-3- Child protection in the millennium development goals
Child protection occurs in the social the targets of the millennium development goals. The third target of MDG 1 is to Halve, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger, especially children, in which More than 90 million children under age five are still undernourished and underweight. The MDG 2 is addressed mainly for children, it aims to Ensure that children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling by 2015, this due to the high proportion of children out school ‘57million’ particularly in poor countries, and countries affected by conflicts. The MDG 3 deals with promoting gender equality through eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015.
Children are also at the central of health care goals MDG 4, 5 and 6. MDG4 aims to Reduce by two-thirds, the under-five child mortality rate between 1990 and 2015 mainly in non-developed countries. MDG5 is to improve maternal health by reducing three-quarters of the maternal mortality ratio and providing universal access to reproductive health for children and their mothers. MDG 6 aims to combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases that may infect children through their parents, this can be achieved through reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS and stopping the incidence of malaria and other major diseases by providing a universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it by 2015.
2- Child protection achievements and challenges
2-1-Child protection achievements in MDGs
- Eradicating hungry children
The proportion of children under age five who are underweight has been cut almost in half between 1990 and 2015, according to global projections, and it is possible that the target has been achieved. Yet over 90 million children under age five—one in seven children worldwide—remain underweight. Being underweight puts children at greater risk of dying from common infections, increases the frequency and severity of such infections and contributes to delayed recovery. Poor nutrition in the first 1,000 days of life is also associated with impaired cognitive ability and reduced school and work performance. Two regions account for nearly 90 percent of all underweight children in 2015—half live in Southern Asia and one-third in sub-Saharan Africa. However, due to the region’s growing population, the number of underweight children has actually risen.
Stunting—defined as inadequate height for age— is more common than underweight, affecting approximately one in four children under five, or 161 million children worldwide in 2013. This chronic form of undernutrition puts these children at risk of diminished cognitive and physical development. The number of stunted children has fallen in all regions except sub-Saharan Africa, where the numbers increased by about one-third between 1990 and 2013. Children from the poorest 20 per cent of the population are more than twice as likely to be stunted as those from the wealthiest quintile. Stunting and other forms of malnutrition can be reduced through proven interventions. These include improving maternal nutrition, especially before, during and immediately after pregnancy; early and exclusive breastfeeding; and timely introduction of safe, appropriate and high-quality complementary food for infants, accompanied by appropriate micronutrient interventions. [7]
- Achieving universal primary education
Education goal has experienced considerable achievements, in which the primary school net enrolment rate in the developing regions has reached 91 percent in 2015, up from 83 percent in 2000. Sub-Saharan Africa has had the best record of improvement in the primary education of any region since the MDGs were established. The region achieved a 20 percentage point increase in the net enrolment rate from 2000 to 2015, compared to a gain of 8 percentage points between 1990 and 2000.
Globally, The number of out-of-school children of primary school age worldwide has fallen by almost half, to an estimated 57 million in 2015, down from 100 million in 2000. However, The literacy rate among youth aged 15 to 24 has increased globally from 83 per cent to 91 per cent between 1990 and 2015. The gap between women and men has narrowed.[8]
- Gender parity
Gender disparity has narrowed substantially at all levels of education since 2000. The developing regions as a whole have achieved the target to eliminate gender disparity at all levels of education. However, significant differences remain across regions and countries, as disparities favoring either sex can cancel each other out when aggregated. The greatest improvements have been made in primary education.
Today, five of the nine developing regions have achieved parity: the Caucasus and Central Asia, Eastern Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, South-Eastern Asia and Southern Asia. The most substantial progress has been made in Southern Asia, where the gender parity index has increased from 0.74—the lowest starting point of all regions in 1990—to 1.03 in 2015. The gap between girls and boys has also narrowed considerably in North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, and Western Asia. Overall, 64 percent of countries in the developing regions reporting data by sex had achieved gender parity in primary education in 2012. More than half of the countries with gender disparity in primary education in 2012 (56 percent) were in sub-Saharan Africa.[9]
- Reducing child mortality
Globally, the under-five mortality rate has declined by more than half, dropping from 90 to 43 deaths per 1,000 live births between 1990 and 2015. And Since the early 1990s, the rate of reduction of under-five mortality has more than tripled. Despite population growth in the developing regions, the number of deaths of children under five has declined from 12.7 million in 1990 to almost 6 million in 2015 globally. Whereas In sub-Saharan Africa, the annual rate of reduction of under-five mortality was over five times faster during 2005–2013 than it was during 1990–1995.
This improvement was due to Measles vaccination which helped to prevent nearly 15.6 million deaths between 2000 and 2013. The number of globally reported measles cases declined by 67 percent for the same period. About 84 percent of children worldwide received at least one dose of measles-containing vaccine in 2013, up from 73 percent in 2000.[10]
- Improving Maternal health
Maternal survival has significantly improved since the adoption of the MDGs. The maternal mortality ratio dropped by 45 per cent worldwide between 1990 and 2013, from 380 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births to 210. Many developing regions have made steady progress in improving maternal health, including the regions with the highest maternal mortality ratios. For example, in Southern Asia, the maternal mortality ratio declined by 64 percent between 1990 and 2013, and in sub-Saharan Africa, it fell by 49 per cent. Despite this progress, every day hundreds of women die during pregnancy or from childbirth-related Complications; hemorrhage was the cause of the greatest number of maternal deaths. Other major complications include infections, high blood pressure during pregnancy, complications from delivery and unsafe abortion.
Progress in raising the proportion of births delivered with skilled attendance has been modest over the course of the MDG timeframe, reflecting a lack of universal access to care. Globally, the proportion of deliveries attended by skilled health personnel increased from 59 percent around 1990 to 71 percent around 2014. Yet this leaves more than one in four babies and their mothers without access to crucial medical care during childbirth. Wide disparities are found among regions in the coverage of skilled attendance at birth. Coverage ranges from universal in Eastern Asia and nearly universal (96 percent) in the Caucasus and Central Asia to a low of about 52 percent in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia. These two regions have the highest rates of maternal and newborn mortality in the world. [11]
- Combating HIV and other diseases
In 2013, approximately 17.7 million children worldwide under age 18 had lost one or both parents due to AIDS-related causes. The number rose from 10.5 million in 2000 to a peak of 18.5 million in 2009 and has been falling gradually in recent years. Investment in economic support and social protection will be needed for years to come to mitigate the impact of HIV on these children. An encouraging sign is that almost equal numbers of orphaned and non-orphaned children aged 10 to 14 are attending school, which can be an important source of protection and stability for vulnerable children. The school attendance ratio between orphaned and nonorphaned children increased from 0.80 around 2000 to d;0.96 around 2014.[12]
2-2- MDGs Child protection challenges
To some extent, the problems that hinder the fulfillment of all the MDGs particularly child protection ones are rooted in inequality and injustice – a failure to extend the rights and protections already enjoyed by some children to all children. Stark disparities remain within countries, between rural and urban children, for example, and between those living in richer or poorer regions. Others are evident between social groups: Racial or ethnic minority children are often excluded from national progress, such as Roma and immigrant children in Europe, for example, and those from minority indigenous and tribal groups in Asia and the Pacifi c, Africa, North America and Latin America. Children with disabilities also face exclusion.
Running through all these patterns of injustice is the persistent reality of gender discrimination, which denies millions of girls equal rights to health and opportunities. It also renders them vulnerable to sexual and other forms of violence.
The emergence of HIV and AIDS was a sudden reminder of human vulnerability in an increasingly globalized world. Further health threats inevitably lie in wait – demanding constant vigilance and stronger and more extensive forms of international cooperation that can generate swift and effective responses.
Another major hazard for the years ahead is climate change. The scale of future global warming may be uncertain but the process is already underway, threatening the prospects of millions of children. Climate change will affect everyone, but it will impinge most directly on the poorest communities, who tend to occupy marginal land and are the most exposed to the elements. Rising sea levels and more frequent or severe droughts and floods or other extreme weather events may cause serious economic damage in richer societies. But in poorer ones, these hazards represent an immediate threat to child health and survival.
Globalization is also associated with rapid technological change. As with climate change, this can sometimes lead us in unforeseen and dangerous directions, but it still holds the promise of new forms of progress and protection. For children, the potential benefits lie, for example, in information communication technologies that are unlocking vast stores of previously inaccessible human knowledge. Children should also benefit directly from the development of new vaccines and cheaper and more readily available treatment for many childhood illnesses. [13]
Recently another challenge has occurred and spread around the world; conflicts significantly threaten children, human and sustainable development. By the end of 2014, conflicts have forced almost 60 million people to abandon their homes, and this is the highest level recorded since the Second World War. Every day 42.000 of people on average are forcibly displaced and compelled to seek protection due to conflicts.[14]
In addition to the previous challenges, Countries could not monitor children goals and the other MDGs indicators due to the lack of basic data that hinder policy making. Basic data for development are missing important data on development such as the number of deaths, the number of quality of jobs, and data on agricultural productivity. Data gap for monitoring MDGs remains low, especially in small and fragile countries. These countries suffer from political, institutional and financial obstacles that hamper collecting, analyzing data and accessing them to the public, for instance, most of the Sub-Saharan African countries. [15]
Thus, there is an urgent need to improve the data sources or sustainable data used for sustainable development, which reflects the demand for better, faster, more accessible, more disaggregated data monitoring child goals and all MDGs progress . as well as, there is a need to expand MDGs by setting ‘MDG Plus’ goals in order to cope with the previous challenges and make child protection at the center of sustainable development goals by 2030.
3- Towards child protection by 2030
3-1- Sustainable development agenda
On 1 January 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development — adopted by world leaders in September 2015 at a historic UN Summit — officially came into force. Over the next fifteen years, with these new Goals that universally apply to all, countries will mobilize efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change, while ensuring that no one is left behind.
The SDGs build on the success of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and aim to go further to end all forms of poverty. The new Goals are unique in that they call for action by all countries, poor, rich and middle-income to promote prosperity while protecting the planet. They recognize that ending poverty must go hand-in-hand with strategies that build economic growth and addresses a range of social needs including education, health, social protection, and job opportunities while tackling climate change and environmental protection.
While the SDGs are not legally binding, governments are expected to take ownership and establish national frameworks for the achievement of the 17 Goals. Countries have the primary responsibility for follow-up and review of the progress made in implementing the Goals, which will require quality, accessible and timely data collection. Regional follow-up and review will be based on national-level analyses and contribute to follow-up and review at the global level. [16]
3-2- Child protection at the center of sustainable development goals
Child protection issues were not really explicit in all of the Millennium Development Goals. Although countries have made progress towards many of the Goals, such as reducing child and infant mortality, addressing nutrition and increasing access to quality education, these same countries still struggle to protect children from violence, exploitation, and abuse.). in addition to poverty, hunger and healthcare wellbeing, which were discussed in the MDGs, these goals extended to other children’s issues, and they obviously occur in the new 17 sustainable development goals by 2030. (Appendix 2)
Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life‐long learning opportunities for all, through building and upgrading education facilities that are a child, disability, and gender‐sensitive and provide safe, non‐violent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all.
Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. By ending all forms of violence against women and girls in public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation, eliminate all harmful practices, such as a child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilations.
Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, with providing full and productive employment and decent work for all take immediate and effective measures to secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labor, eradicate forced labor, and by 2025 end child labor in all its forms including recruitment and use of child soldiers.
Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable: by 2030, provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, particularly for women and children, older persons and persons with disabilities.
Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels significantly reduce all forms of violence and related deaths everywhere end abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence and torture against children by 2030 provide legal identity for all including birth registration.
The other goals are also can linked to children. For Goal 7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all Many children across the world have little or no access to modern energy services, which can have a host of negative consequences on their well-being, education, safety, and health, and it is also linked to preventable child deaths and illnesses. As well as Goal 6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all In 2012, around 1,600 children under 5 years of age died every day from diarrhoeal diseases. Eighty-eight percent of these deaths – more than 1,400 every day – were due to a lack of safe drinking water, sanitation, and basic hygiene.18 Investing specifically in children’s access to water, sanitation, and hygiene has cumulative benefits for the rest of society. [17]
Goals 9, 12, 14, 15 and 17 Although Goals 9, 12, 14, 15, and 17 contain no specific references to children and youth, the goals are clearly central to their upbringing and well-being. Goal 9, Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation, is valuable too, and reliant on, children. We must involve the dynamism of youth researchers and inventors to solve some of the world’s most pressing issues. In addition, children are current and future consumers and producers, therefore, proposed Goal 12, Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns, will rely on involving children in related issues such as the efficient use of natural resources, recycling, and other sustainable practices
Similarly, Goal 14, Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development, and Goal 15, Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss, will directly benefit the environment that children will inherit and inhabit. In turn, future generations will become the future guardians of the earth. Goal 17, Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development, is central to the success of the Post-2015 Development Agenda and children and youth are essential stakeholders for partnership. The voices of children and youth have been invaluable for the process of developing the new agenda and will be equally important to monitoring and accountability. Enhanced international support for effective and targeted capacity building will be critical for achieving all SDGs including those specifically related to children. Furthermore, the disaggregation of data will ensure that their unique and important experiences are being measured and can, therefore, be improved.[18]
References and Sources
- The millennium summit officialle website: http://www.un.org/en/events/pastevents/millennium_summit.shtml. Last access: 15/1/2017.
- United Nations General Assembly, the United Nations millennium declaration, 18/9/2000.
- The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Child Protection INFORMATION Sheet, Child Protection, the MDGs and the Millennium Declaration, May 2006.
- United Nations, Convention on the Rights of the Child, Adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by General Assembly resolution 44/25 of 20 November 1989, entry into force 2 September 1990.
- The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Child Protection INFORMATION Sheet: What is Child Protection? , May 2006.
- The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Child Protection Strategy Reference Document , May 2008.
- United Nations, Millennium development goals report 2015, p.22. Available at UN Statistics Division, Millennium Development Goals website : http://mdgs.un.org. Last access: 15/1/2017.
- United Nations, millennium development goals report2015 summary, 2015. p.3. Available at UN Millennium Development Goals website : http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/news. Last access: 15/1/2017.
- United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), children and the millennium development goals, new york, USA, December 2007.
- United Nations, MDG report 2015, final assessment of progress toward achieving the MDGs, 6July 2015, p 18. Available at UN Millennium Development Goals website at : http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/news. Last access: 15/10/2016.
- United Nations, millennium development goals report 2014, p 7. Available at UN Statistics Division Millennium Development Goals website : http://mdgs.un.org. Last access: 15/1/2017.
- Sustainable Development goals official website : http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/development-agenda/, last access: 15/1/2017.
- UNICEF , A Post-2015 World Fit for Children: A review of the Open Working Group Report on Sustainable Development Goals from a Child Rights Perspective, New York, USA, 2012.
- United Nation, Economic and Social Council “Report of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators”, E/CN.3/2016/2/Rev. 1, 19 February 2016.
UN Statistics Division Millennium Development Goals website : http://mdgs.un.org. last access: 15/10/2016
[1] – The millennium summit officialle website: http://www.un.org/en/events/pastevents/millennium_summit.shtml. Last access: 15/1/2017.
[2] – United Nations General Assembly, the United Nations millennium declaration, 18/9/2000, p.p 1-2.
[3] – The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Child Protection INFORMATION Sheet, Child Protection, the MDGs and the Millennium Declaration, May 2006, p. 1.
[4]– united nations, Convention on the Rights of the Child, Adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by General Assembly resolution 44/25 of 20 November 1989, entry into force 2 September 1990.
[5] – The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Child Protection INFORMATION Sheet: What is Child Protection? , May 2006, p.1.
[6] – The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Child Protection Strategy Reference Document , May 2008, p.p3-4.
[7] – United Nations, Millennium development goals report 2015, p.22. Available at UN Statistics Division, Millennium Development Goals website : http://mdgs.un.org. Last access: 15/1/2017.
[8]– United Nations, millennium development goals report2015 summary, 2015. p.3. Available at UN Millennium Development Goals website : http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/news. Last access: 15/1/2017.
[9] – United Nations, Millennium development goals report 2015, op. cit, p.29.
[10] – United Nations, millennium development goals report2015 summary, op.cit . p.4.
[11] – United Nations, Millennium development goals report 2015, op. cit, p.p. 39.
[12] – Ibid . p.46.
[13] – United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), children and the millennium development goals, new york, USA, December 2007, p. 84.
[14]– – United Nations, MDG report 2015, final assessment of progress toward achieving the MDGs, 6July 2015, p 18. Available at UN Millennium Development Goals website at : http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/news. Last access: 15/10/2016.
[15] – United Nations, millennium development goals report 2014, p 7. Available at UN Statistics Division Millennium Development Goals website : http://mdgs.un.org. Last access: 15/1/2017.
[16] – sustainable development goals official website : http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/development-agenda/, last access: 15/1/2017.
[17] – UNICEF , A Post-2015 World Fit for Children: A review of the Open Working Group Report on Sustainable Development Goals from a Child Rights Perspective, New York, USA, 2012, p.p 10-11.
[18]– Ibid, p.p. 14-15.
Conclusion
As a conclusion, the millennium development goals have produced the most successful approach to stop poverty in the world history. In 2000, World leaders had entered into a global commitment towards the world and the most vulnerable group’s many children to stop poverty before 2015 by achieving all the MDGs. As it is mentioned in this paper, the first six goals turn around children’s issues hunger, education, and healthcare. By 2015, the countries of the world have experienced a great progress in these goals, However, this doesn’t mean to stop at2015, but further global work is needed to bridge the gaps between poor and reach children and find solutions to the previous issues and challenges. This is the first step towards working on the post-2015 development agenda, including the set of sustainable development goals that are making the children at the center of the development.
Appendix 1: The Millennium Development Goals and Targets
| The millennium development Goals | Targets |
Source: adopted from UN Statistics Division Millennium Development Goals website : http://mdgs.un.org. last access: 15/10/2016.
Appendix2: The new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
| Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) | |
| Goal 1 |
Source: United Nation, Economic and Social Council “Report of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators”, E/CN.3/2016/2/Rev. 1, 19 February 2016.
