CHILDREN COME LAST

Barry Weisberg, J.D.*

There is no greater hypocrisy worldwide than the oft declared intention to "put children first" or "leave no child behind." To improve the lives of children, the United Nations Special Session on Children, May 8-10, 2002 in New York, must find a way to close the chasm between the rhetoric and the actual behavior of most governments.

There are 2.1 billion children worldwide, 35% of the world's population. Eight hundred million children go to bed hungry every night. Seven hundred million children possess no form of birth certification, depriving them of benefits such education or health care. Hundreds of millions of children suffer from various forms of neglect. Five hundred million children cannot read. Two hundred and fifty million children ages 4-14 are forced to work. From the bedroom to the living room, school room, boardroom and war room, the best interests of the child come second to the selfish interests of the adults. No country in the world invests more in lower education than higher education, health care for children than health care for the elderly. Parents today are more disconnected from children than ever before. While the technical means of communication increases, there is a decrease in the personal communication with children.

By the time a child finishes elementary school in the United States they will have been exposed to 100,000 violent media events. Three million children are suspected of victimization from child abuse and neglect. US children under fifteen are 12 times more likely to die of gunfire, sixteen times more likely to be murdered by a gun and eleven times more likely to commit suicide than a European child. The United States remains one of two nations to refuse to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, prosecutes children as adults, punishes children at unprecedented rates and has a higher proportion of children living in poverty than any industrial democracy.

There are at least three reasons why children bear the worse burden of globalization. First, is the denial, delusion and deception regarding violence and children. Violence against children is the least reported and most under reported form of violence. Second, abused women tend to raise abused children. As long as the majority of the world's women remain at risk of violation, children will remain at risk. Third, are the escalating risks to families worldwide: three billion people live on less than two dollars a day; two billion people living with no sanitation or electricity, and one and one-quarter billion people living without clean water or exposed to dangerous levels of outdoor pollution.

To reverse this catastrophe governments at the local and national level must adopt Child Impact Statements for policy and establish Child Friendly Budgets that actually put children first. This is the key to eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving gender equality, defeating disease and ensuring environmental sustainability. Insuring the well being of children is also key to curb the destructive impacts of globalization. But is this possible? None of the most important goals of the 1990 World Summit on Children have been met. Not because of inaction by the United Nations, but the member States. After 9-11-2001 in New York, the United States found hundreds of billions of dollars for the "war on terror" but not the funds to eliminate child poverty worldwide or at home. Ultimately we cannot trust adults to safeguard the needs of children. Children must be insured full human rights and become genuine partners with adults, engaged and empowered in the struggle for human security in the family, school, community, city, State and the United Nations. It is not children that should be pitied, but the adults who refuse to safeguard children.

End - 616 Words - April 29, 2002