Press release 02 May 2003
Iraqi children still face grave threats to their survival, health and general well-being, despite the end of the war and the rapid process of change underway in the country, UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, warned today.
UNICEF said that unless immediate national priority is put on protecting children from these threats, thousands of Iraqi youngsters will die unnecessarily - and hundreds of thousands more will be injured, fall prey to disease, suffer from abuse and exploitation, or fall behind in school.
"We're calling on both Iraqis and the parties shaping Iraqi society to make the protection of children job number one," said Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF. "Iraq's future depends on the health and well-being of its children. At the moment we are failing them. They should be our first priority - not only in words, but in action. And frankly I'm not seeing nearly enough action for children."
One day after UNICEF international staff returned to work in Baghdad, UNICEF outlined a series of dangers that are still stalking Iraqi children despite the end of the war:
- recurrent insecurity across the country, preventing humanitarian aid from consistently reaching communities and leading to looting that further hampers relief and recovery efforts;
- significant degradation of the national water system, resulting in ongoing and widespread health hazards that hit children hardest. Outbreaks of diarrhoea, cholera, and other killer diseases have been reported across the country;
- unknown numbers of unexploded munitions lying in and around Iraqi neighbourhoods, with daily reports of injuries and deaths among children;
- enormous stress on health centres and hospitals, including an insufficient flow of needed medical supplies to many locations and inadequate care for the injured and sick;
- insufficient emphasis on opening schools, leaving children on the streets where they are exposed to hazards, and leaving their parents overburdened and worried;
- ongoing malnutrition, with food supplies not yet stabilised and more than a quarter of all children under age five already malnourished.
"The war may be over but the work is far from done," Bellamy said. "Children are still dying, and they're still at grave risk. Let's make protecting children as comprehensive and urgent an objective as ending the war was."
UNICEF's own key priorities are supporting the recovery of basic health and water services, and immediately opening classrooms. It is also working to re-establish care for severely malnourished children.
Nearly half of Iraq's population are children. UNICEF's experience in Afghanistan, Angola and other countries in crisis makes clear that focusing on children's needs has a galvanising and inspirational effect on populations. Putting children first in national recovery efforts rallies a population and leads to greater stability and political consensus.
Bellamy added that when investment is made in children quickly - and with visible results - the prospects for post-conflict peace and stability improve significantly.
Classrooms Are Key
"Nothing will do more to immediately improve the well-being and protection of Iraq's children than getting them back in the classroom," Bellamy said.
"Classrooms give children a positive focus, they allow the sharing of vital information, they keep children off the streets, they protect them from exploitation, they relieve parents and help them focus on their own recovery," Bellamy said.
UNICEF has already delivered hundreds of pre-packed "School-In-A-Box" kits into Iraq to help local communities organise education efforts quickly. Thousands of additional kits are packed and ready to transport. Each kit contains the basics needed to organise a temporary classroom, including pencils and paper for children, chalk boards, bags for children to keep their work and materials in, and instructional aids for teachers. Each kit supports 80 children.
Background
- UNICEF has supported Iraqi children since 1953, with a permanent presence in the country since 1983. UNICEF now has more than 200 national and international staff working in the country.
- Since the end of the war, UNICEF has supplied medicine and supplies for hundreds of thousands of people; delivered water equipment and repaired vital water facilities; tankered millions of litres of fresh water into Iraq; supported the opening of classrooms with school-in-a-box kits; and supplied high-protein biscuits and other life-saving nutritional items to children most in need.
