Enough of Promises for Children!

May 8, 6 P.M., Remedios Circle, Manila
A Children's Candle Light Vigil for the UGASS

An hour after the crimson sun sinks in Manila Bay, Filipino child laborers and their families will lit some 1,000 candles to vigil for world leaders and representatives meeting at the United Nations General Assembly for a Special Session on Children (UNGASS) slated May 8-10 in headquarters New York.

The Global March Against Child Labor, Our Lady of Remedies Parish, and the UNICEF is organizing the after sunset vigil as towns and cities across the globe similarly aim to show the same solidarity to keep sacred the promises made in the name of children during the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and twelve years ago after the 1990 World Summit for Children.

Despite an annual growth of around U$ 3 trillion by the world economy, many of the promises remain unfulfilled. Over 800 million children continue to be exploited as cheap and disposable child laborers, denied of basic education, suffer from daily discrimination and inaccessibility of preventive health care, and remain bonded to physical, sexual and psychological abuse.

The UNGASS delegates will renew their commitment and pledge to strategic solutions for the coming decade by reviewing the progress and constraints in the past in working for children's rights and welfare.

This special session is also unique because it accommodates the largest ever number of children as official participants hopefully to breath life and enthusiasm to discussions about their everyday lives.

There is a widening consensus that many lofty promises in the Declaration may have fallen by the wayside. In this light, the Global March Against Child Labor supports a new plan of action as expected outcome of the meeting that must call on governments to:

• Take all immediate and time-bound national steps to protect children from child labor
• Ensure that free, compulsory quality education is provided to every child. This includes abolishing user fees for schooling, including all materials.
• Provide free, quality healthcare for every child
• Stop the racism and discrimination that too many children endure
• Protect all children from the horrors of armed conflict
• Protect children and families from HIV/AIDS and other deadly diseases
• Make children the first priority in national, state and local budgets
• Dedicate at least 0.1% of the GNP of wealthy countries as official development assistance for children in the rest of the world.
• Listen to and respect the voices of children

We will relentlessly struggle to make the promise of giving each child a better future into everyday noble realities. We want action now! For more information, contact: Visayan Forum Foundation, 2873 Lamayan Street, Sta. Ana, Manila Tel 5627821, 5627120 Fax 5634514 E-mail: [email protected].

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