A world fit for children: Millennium development goals- Special session on children documents the Convention on the Rights of the Child

The UN General Assembly’s Special Session on Children in May 2002 attracted 69 Summit-level participants and 190 high-level national delegations. When they finished their work they had committed their governments to a time-bound set of specific goals for children and young people, and to a basic framework for getting there. This booklet contains the commitments that were part of the Special Session on Children: the Millennium Development Goals, earlier pledged to by all 189 United Nations Member States; the Children’s Statement, ‘A World Fit for Us’, delivered at the opening plenary of the Special Session by two young delegates; the consensus outcome document of the General Assembly, ‘A World Fit for Children’, with goals and targets to be met; and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified, acceded to or signed by 192 countries in the 12 years since it was first ratified, and the two Optional Protocols to the Convention. Together, these documents constitute an essential guidebook for all those working to improve the lives of children and young people throughout the world. In fact, they could well serve as a resource text for all those working for peace and security, as children are at the heart of those efforts, too. What follows in this small book are the promises of world leaders who have set themselves an agenda that is at once both visionary and concrete, to better the lives of children and young people. See also: http://www.unicef.org/rightsite/433_468.htm