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The United Nations Special Session on Children

Why a Special Session on Children?

In 1996, the United Nations General Assembly agreed to hold a Special Session on Children - an unprecedented meeting dedicated to the children and adolescents of the world bringing together heads of state, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), children's advocates and young people. Originally scheduled for 19-21 September 2001 the Special Session was postponed because of the tragic attacks on the United States on September 11 and rescheduled for 8-10 May 2002. The gathering has presented a great opportunity to change the way the world views and treats children.

Aims of the Special Session

The General Assembly defined two objectives for the Special Session on Children:

a review of the achievements in the implementation of the Declaration and Plan of Action adopted at the 1990 World Summit for Children.
a renewed commitment and a pledge for action for children in the next decade.

The importance of the Special Session on Children

The first time that the General Assembly - which is the highest level of the United Nations - has held a meeting devoted solely to all aspects of children's lives.
Governments have a 'second chance' to take decisive action to achieve full implementation of the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
An important opportunity to review the successes and failure in achieving the goals set at the 1990 World Summit for Children (and the principle of looking back at progress on promises is a good one).
A chance for children, NGOs and civil society organisations at national, regional and international levels to talk to governments about what needs to be done.
An additional mechanism for governments to be held to account for their actions towards children - that is the development and implementation of National Plans of Action after the Special Session.
The first time that young people have actively participated in deliberations at a major UN conference in such numbers. More than 300 children are delegates.

Key documents

Two documents relate directly to the two objectives of the Special Session:

The report of the UN Secretary-General 'We the Children' (a/s-27/3,4 May 2001) reviews the progress made over the last decade in fulfilling the goals of the Declaration and Plan of Action adopted at the 1990 World Summit for Children. The report assesses the decade's achievements and its setbacks, highlights best practices and lessons learned, describes the obstacles to progress and makes recommendations for further action. An accompanying statistical review presents the most recent data on children's rights and well being, based on exhaustive data from 150 countries.
The outcome document of the Special Session, 'A World Fit for Children', includes a Declaration and a Plan of Action to realise children's rights and improve child well being over the next ten years.

To view these documents, please see the websites of CRIN and UNICEF:www.crin.org/specialsession and www.unicef.org/specialsession

Participants at the Special Session in New York

Delegates include heads of state, governments, NGOs, civil society leaders, business leaders, and children's advocates including children and young people. In certain circumstances government delegations have included up to two NGO delegates. Around 3,600 NGOs were accredited to the Special Session on Children.

Other events that relate to the Special Session on Children

a Children's Forum (5-7 May) held for children and young people to discuss the issues that matter most to them.
side events organised by NGOs for the duration of the Special Session.
a Forum on Women's Leadership for Children.
a Parliamentary Forum.
a Religious Leaders Symposium.
three NGO plenaries.
the signature and ratification of human rights treaties for children.
a public-private sector dialogue meeting.

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