Unicef

We believe that nurturing and caring for children are the cornerstones of human progress. UNICEF was created with this purpose in mind - to work with others to overcome the obstacles that poverty, violence, disease and discrimination place in a child's path. We believe that we can, together, advance the cause of humanity.

We advocate for measures to give children the best start in life, because proper care at the youngest age forms the strongest foundation for a person's future.

We promote girls' education - ensuring that they complete primary education as a minimum - because it benefits all children, both girls and boys. Girls who are educated grow up to become better thinkers, better citizens, and better parents to their own children.

We act so that all children are immunized against common childhood diseases, and are well nourished, because it is wrong for a child to suffer or die from a preventable illness.

We work to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among young people because it is right to keep them from harm and enable them to protect others. We help children and families affected by HIV/AIDS to live their lives with dignity.

We involve everyone in creating protective environments for children. We are present to relieve suffering during emergencies, and wherever children are threatened, because no child should be exposed to violence, abuse or exploitation.

UNICEF upholds the Convention on the Rights of the Child. We work to assure equality for those who are discriminated against, girls and women in particular. We work for the Millennium Development Goals and for the progress promised in the United Nations Charter. We strive for peace and security. We work to hold everyone accountable to the promises made for children.

We are part of the Global Movement for Children - a broad coalition dedicated to improving the life of every child. Through this movement, and events such as the United Nations Special Session on Children, we encourage young people to speak out and participate in the decisions that affect their lives.

We work in 191 countries through country programmes and National Committees. We are UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund.

Every year, an estimated 9.7 million children under the age of five die totally preventable deaths. Some are directly caused by illness such as pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria. Others are caused by indirect causes including conflict and HIV/AIDS. Malnutrition, poor hygiene and lack of access to safe water and adequate sanitation contribute to more than half of these deaths. Two thirds of both neonatal and young child deaths - over 6 million deaths every year - are preventable. Half a million women die in pregnancy each year, most during delivery or in the first few days thereafter.

Innovation in saving lives
Existing low-cost, low-technology and high impact interventions such as vaccines, antibiotics, micronutrient supplementation, insecticide-treated bednets, improved breastfeeding practices and adoption of safe hygiene practices can prevent unnecessary maternal and child deaths and reduce undernutrition.

By packaging services and implementing at scale, high impact and evidence-based maternal, newborn and child survival interventions, we can save millions of lives. By ensuring that all children have access to basic education and by focusing on children marginalized by poverty, HIV/AIDS, conflict and discrimination, we can break the cycle of poverty that keeps children on the brink of survival.

UNICEF in action
Sixty years of experience tell us that we can turn back child mortality and meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. UNICEF's Medium Term Strategic Plan for 2006-2009 identifies Young Child Survival and Development as the first right of the child. UNICEF works with governments, national and international agencies, and civil society to support effective and essential actions at each phase of the life cycle of the child, including in pregnancy, early childhood, preschool and school-going years, and in adolescence.

For too long, children have been the missing face in the HIV and AIDS response and their needs are often being overlooked. Yet, they are the ones who offer the greatest hope for defeating the epidemic.

Globally, 2.3 million children are living with HIV. In 2005, around 380,000 children died of AIDS and 540,000 children got newly infected. Over 15 million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS.

HIV and AIDS and its impact on children continues to remain at the core of UNICEF's work. This is reflected both in our Medium-Term Strategic Plan and the launch of the UNITE FOR CHILDREN. UNITE AGAINST AIDS CAMPAIGN being implemented with a multitude of partners. The campaign goals are congruent with UNICEF's corporate priorities and the Millennium Development Goals.

UNICEF seeks to make a difference in the lives of children affected by AIDS by: (1) preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV and providing paediatric treatment, (2) preventing infection among adolescents and young people, and (3) by protecting and supporting children affected by HIV/AIDS.

Building a protective environment:

An estimated 300 million children worldwide are subjected to violence, exploitation and abuse including the worst forms of child labor in communities, schools and institutions; during armed conflict; and to harmful practices such as female genital mutilation/cutting and child marriage. Millions more, not yet victims, also remain without adequate protection.

Protecting children from violence, exploitation and abuse is an integral component of protecting their rights to survival, growth and development. UNICEF's commitment to protecting children is underlined in our Medium Term Strategic Plan. We draw on our Core Corporate Commitments, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Millennium Declaration, and numerous international human rights agreements as the basis for our response.

UNICEF advocates and supports the creation of a protective environment for children in partnership with governments, national and international partners including the private sector, and civil society. National child protection systems, protective social practices and children's own empowerment coupled with good oversight and monitoring are among the elements of a protective environment and enable countries, communities and families to prevent and respond to violence, exploitation and abuse.

Basic education and gender equality:

Education is a basic human right, vital to personal and societal development and well being. All children deserve a quality education founded on a rights-based approach and rooted in the concept of gender equality. A rights-based approach to education will address inequalities in our societies that are deep-rooted and often gender-based. Such inequalities exclude millions of children, particularly girls, from school or condemn them to educational experiences of very poor quality.

Education enhances lives. It ends generational cycles of poverty and disease and provides the means for sustainable development. A quality basic education will better equip girls and boys with knowledge and skills needed to adopt healthy lifestyles, to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, and to take an active role in social, economic and political decision-making as they transition to adolescence and adulthood. As educated adults, they are more likely to have fewer children, to be informed about appropriate child-rearing practices, and to ensure their children start school on time and are ready to learn.

UNICEF advocates quality basic education for all children - girls and boys - with an emphasis on gender equality and eliminating disparities of all kinds. In promoting equity, UNICEF focuses on the most disadvantaged children through a range of innovative programmes and initiatives in education. We work with a range of local, national and international partners to realize the education and gender equality goals established in the Millennium Development Goals and the Education for All Declaration and to bring about essential structural changes needed to achieve social justice and equity for all.

The big picture

Quality education remains a distant dream for millions of children across the globe. 115 million children, the majority of them girls, are being denied this fundamental right.

What is girls' education?

Education is a fundamental right for all children, including girls. Yet, as in many other areas of their lives, girls' prospects for education are diminished because of gender discrimination.

The statistics say it all. 62 million of the estimated 115 million children in the world who are not in school are girls, according to 2002 figures. In Sub Saharan Africa, 24 million girls were out of school in 2002. 85% of all girls out of school live in Sub Saharan Africa, South Asia, East Asia and the Pacific. Two-thirds of the world's 781 million illiterate adults are women.

That is why United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in his groundbreaking address to the Millennium Assembly reminded us that there can be no significant or sustainable transformation in societies-and no lasting reduction in global poverty-until girls receive the basic quality education they deserve-and take their rightful place as equal partners in development.

Links to other UNICEF priority areas

Education can put women on the path to economic and social empowerment. Educated women tend to marry later, have fewer children and are more likely to understand what they must do to protect themselves and their families against various odds.

Those are some of the reasons why UNICEF has focused attention on girls' education. The other is that accelerating progress in girls' education can promote and consolidate gains in other UNICEF priority areas, including fighting HIV/AIDS, protecting children from abuse and exploitation, promoting immunization and ensuring a child's right to survive and thrive in the early years.

A strong argument can be made, for example, that education is our best weapon against HIV/AIDS, which is affecting a disproportionate number of women and teenage girls. Women represent 62 per cent of the 15-24 year-olds living with HIV and AIDS globally.

Education helps women become better informed about how to prevent HIV infections. It empowers them to defend themselves in potentially dangerous situations. Indeed, it has been shown that denying a girl access to quality education increases her vulnerability to abuse, exploitation and disease. Girls, more than boys, are at greater risk of such abuse when they are not in school. A classroom not only provides a safe haven for girls, it can instil in them a sense of their own power, and hope for the future.

The links between educated mothers and their children's survival and development have been clearly established. An educated mother is more likely to protect her child from avoidable illness and disease with routine health check-ups, growth monitoring and a nutritious diet. She knows that her child can be safe from such preventable diseases as polio, measles and diarrhoea through immunization. How a child is nurtured and cared for from birth onwards has a profound bearing on that child's ability to learn and develop. And there is incontrovertible evidence suggesting that women who are educated tend to have healthier and better educated children.

What's new in girls' education?

Progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Education for All (EFA) objectives has stalled, and many countries missed the 2005 MDG target to get as many girls as boys into primary and secondary education. The world community has not fulfilled its commitments to out-of-school children, since 115 million children worldwide remain out of primary school. The majority of these children are girls and the number of orphans and vulnerable children is on the rise.

UNICEF is committed to scaling up and accelerating progress to help these countries meet the Millennium Develoment Goals, fulfil the aim of Education for all and get every boy and girl into school by 2015 - country by country. Through its leadership of the United Nations' Girls' Education Initiative (UNGEI), UNICEF continues to pursue targets for gender parity and quality and to strengthen partnerships with other global initiatives.

Bold policies by governments and partners are needed to boost enrolment and address the main disparities (especially by gender) and establish and protect the right of all children to free, quality basic education. Momentum in hope and urgency is growing around "bold initiatives" that aim to provide a quantum leap to the rate of progress. The School Fee Abolition Initiative (SFAI) aims to make a breakthrough in access to quality basic education. The Essential Learning Package (ELP) aims to deliver those supplies and services that are essential for developing child-friendly schools. Learning Plus focuses on an inter-sectoral approach with the goal of making schools one-stop centres for delivering a broad range of essential services. UNICEF also works to ensure that education is restored in emergency and post-conflict situations and to safeguard education systems against threats such as HIV and AIDS.

SAO PAULO, Brazil, 10 December 2007 - "I have learned so much from all of the young people that I met and spoke with today. You have inspired me with your optimism, your courage, your determination and your warmth," said Her Royal Highness Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, Maria Teresa, during the first official field visit in her new capacity as a UNICEF Eminent Advocate for Children.

"Many of the challenges you face here in Brazil are those facing young people in my country and around the world," she added during the recent trip. "You have touched my heart with your openness and resolve to overcome these challenges, and to help other young people as well.

"I will do everything I can to support you through my work with UNICEF," she pledged.

Youth projects play important role

The Grand Duchess made her comments while speaking with an adolescent journalist from the Brazilian youth magazine 'Viração' following her visit to several UNICEF-supported projects - including Viração, CEFRAN and Tecer o Futuro in São Paulo.

The three projects work with children and adolescents affected by HIV and AIDS.

"Those of you who write for Viração magazine have an important responsibility, not only to inform people about the truth about HIV and to help remove prejudices surrounding it, but to also inform young people about the importance of life values and skills, including respecting and taking care of ourselves and each other," said the Grand Duchess.

Stories of AIDS-affected young people

During her visit, Her Royal Highness also had the opportunity to hear about the challenges facing AIDS-affected young people in Brazil.

"We want to talk with you about the prejudice that people have against people living with HIV," said 14-year-old João (the names of the children mentioned in this story have been changed to protect their identity). "Most of the time, we can't tell anyone that we are HIV-positive or that our parents are HIV-positive, but here at the CEFRAN centre we can talk about it because we know that everyone understands and we know that no one will judge us%u2026. It makes a big difference in our lives."

"João is right," said Juliana, who contracted the disease from her mother and first discovered she was living with HIV at the age of nine.

'My life has improved!'

"When I first learned that I was HIV-positive, the doctor suggested that I don't tell anyone because of prejudice," Juliana recalled. "As I got older, I started to understand what it all meant and I got very scared. One of my first reactions was to cut myself off from other people.

"We know that many people get the virus because they think it only happens to other people, but the young people who participate in our projects and see our puppet theatre plays learn the truth about HIV/AIDS, and how everyone is vulnerable," she continued.

"When I first heard about 'Tecer o Futuro', I was depressed and unhealthy. At one point, I stopped taking my daily medicines and ended up weighing only 49 kilos. But ever since I got involved in the project, my life has improved!"

Working to support friends and family

Today, Juliana and other young people involved in UNICEF-supported projects here use their knowledge to fight society's prejudice against people living with HIV. They do so by talking with children and adolescents at schools or non-governmental organizations, and through presentations of the 'Fala Serio!' puppet play, which teaches important life skills about HIV/AIDS in a entertaining, amusing and informative way.

Another AIDS-affected youth, Marcelo, explained to the Grand Duchess that many people feel helpless when a loved one is living with HIV.

"My aunt got very sick from HIV and even though we were very close, I felt that I couldn't do anything to help her. At one point, the medicines couldn't help her anymore and it was very sad when she finally passed away, because she was a very important person in my life," he said quietly.

"But you have done so much for your aunt," replied Her Royal Highness warmly. "Your love, your presence and your kindness towards her were probably the most important and precious things you could do for her. We all need to encourage more love, respect and understanding for those living with HIV, just like you did."

Children are in need of special protection in relation to their identity or personal stories in controversial, culturally sensitive and potentially stigmatizing issues including sexual exploitation, gender violence or discrimination, and HIV/AIDS.

Advocating against human rights abuses can put individual children or women at risk of reprisals, including additional physical or psychological harm and life-long stigmatization or rejection by their local communities. These risks require that both the taking of images of children and women in high-risk situations, and the subsequent use of those images, respect the subject's rights to privacy, to participate in decisions affecting them, and to protection.

UNICEF has developed guidelines to assist journalists as they report on issues affecting children. The guidelines are meant to support the best intentions of ethical reporters: serving the public interest without compromising the rights of children. (See the full reporting guidelines.)

When to protect visual identities

In instances where publication of an image may put a child or woman at risk even if the name is changed or omitted, it is advisable not to publish the image at all. We advise that children should not be identified, either visually or by name, if the subject(s) are:

* victims, or perpetrators, of sexual exploitation;
* HIV positive;
* charged or convicted of a crime;
* current or former combatants, if being so identified puts them at risk of future reprisals.

However, there are instances where risks exist to the use of a particular image, but arguments for publishing it are valid. This is the case, for example, with child advocates who have chosen to take a public stance on a potentially high-risk subject, either in their community or in national/international fora. In such instances, the child's right to expression and participation in issues affecting her/him must be respected.

When use is validated for images depicting children identified as being in any of the four groups outlined above, a signed subject release from the child and her/his guardian should be secured. This release must be obtained in circumstances that ensure that the subject is not coerced in any way and understands the implications of the release. At minimum, this means that the release must be in the subject's language and that the decision is made in consultation with a trusted adult member of the same cultural group.

In all cases, whether or how a subject's identity should be protected is an editorial judgement that must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. This underscores the importance of applying the overriding principle of 'best interests of the child' in all circumstances.