Today there is hope for a better future for millions of Afghan children, reports Save the Children. Twenty years
since the UN adopted the Convention of the Rights of the Child and a decade since Afghanistan signed onto the convention, the Afghan government will be submitting its first-ever report to the
Committee on the Convention of the Rights of the Child in Geneva. “Today one in four children in Afghanistan does not reach her fifth birthday, mostly from illnesses that are easily
preventable or cured, among them diarrhea and pneumonia. The submission of the report is an important first step toward ensuring the protection and well-being of Afghan children, but we need to
continue working on the ground with the government to ensure children’s rights are realised,” said Charlotte Petri Gornitzka, Secretary General, International Save the Children Alliance. Afghanistan ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child ten years ago but had not submitted a report on the situation of the country’s children to the Committee, which is an
obligation under the convention. Now, as Afghan children are facing many challenges and are living through the uncertainty of ongoing conflict, the government is addressing the status of children and
submitting its first-ever report. “In Afghanistan 1.8 million children are out of school for a variety of reasons. Often the distances children, especially girls, have walk to school
seem too great — and many parents do not feel safe sending them to schools so far away. But change is possible for these children, and we need to work so children have a real opportunity to
learn,” continued Petri Gornitzka. Save the Children, as part of its Rewrite the Future campaign, has helped over 2.5 million children gain a better quality of education in Afghanistan
and is dedicated to continue working with the Afghani government for the realization of child rights. Abdul, 15, from the Balkh Province in northern Afghanistan said, “I changed since
I started my education. Many things that were done to me before, I know are wrong now. I have the right to live, to education and to express my opinion.” The government of Afghanistan
will now be expected to submit reports to the Committee on the Convention on the Rights of the Child every 5 years. Save the Children has been working for children in Afghanistan since 1973.
For more information
Please contact Mats Lignell, Advocacy and Communication Manager,: +93 798 45 45 65 or Fazel Jalil, Deputy Country Director, +93 798 45 45 01 for media interviews.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
Taliban fighters are seen in an undisclosed location in Afghanistan July 14, 2009. Around 4,000 U.S. Marines and hundreds of NATO and Afghan forces are taking part in an offensive in ...
