It is almost 15 years since the United Nations launched the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Among the MDGs, I was quite touched by the need to provide universal education to all children of school- going age. By “children”, I refer to human beings aged between 3 and 15 years who are still dependent on parents or guardians. Although the year 2015 is the target for achieving the goals, there are still wide- ranging factors that impinge on children’s rights, such as basic education, mortality, pandemic diseases such as HIV-AIDS, malaria, water shortage, poor sanitation violence, conflict, child labour and a lack of immunization, as well as outright poverty. UNICEF’s 2009 report on the State of the World’s Children – Special Edition notes that: “The world has a unique opportunity to reconstruct itself – and dedicate itself afresh to safeguarding and nurturing not only the
physical and economic spheres but also its most vulnerable citizens.” The report goes on to suggest that in all aspects of governance (legislative and administrative actions), the challenge is to assess the implications of policies, budgets and programmes on children’s rights and development. In marking the 20th anniversary of the Convention on
Dr William F. Shija Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association
the Rights of the Child, the report notes in part that some significant global progress has been made in the development of the survival of and the achievement of basic rights for children, to example: the global deaths of children under five years has dropped from 12.5 million in 1990 to less than 9 million in 2008; the use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets for children under five has risen sharply in Sub-Saharan Africa since 2000 (particularly when supported by the availability of vaccines), and HIV treatment for children under 15 has
The Secretary-General’s Commonwealth gallery
Members of the CPA Executive Committee pictured with the King of Tonga, HM Tupou VI, during the 2012 Mid-Year Meeting in Tonga.