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Hey, Forgot the Children?
Mariarosa Cutillo says that delegates are so busy arguing about taxes, debt, and intellectual property that they have totally forgotten about the plight of working children.
In the name of coalition The Global March Against Child Labour she goes around delegates lounges, halls and corridors lobbying for the inclusion of a sentence in the General Assembly resolution, stating that ''the eradication of child labour is to be considered as a fundamental step for the effective realisation of social and people-centred development.''
Cutillo, from Italy, is the European coordinator of the coalition, which groups 180 non governmental organisations and trades unions concerned with the issue of child exploitation.
In her opinion, delegates concentrate their negotiations on so-called central issues, forgetting that children's illiteracy, slave labour, prostitution, forced recruitment into military forces and crime are all part of Convention 182, approved a year ago by the International Organisation of Labour (ILO), which has been ratified by 31 countries.
''Countries sometimes quickly forget their commitments. With 870 million illiterates in the world, financing and debt relief have little meaning,'' she said.
Read TerraViva
The IPS renowned international newspaper will publish a special edition in Geneva, at the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (Copenhagen+5). Follow the conference on line day by day from June 26 through July 1, with exclusive reports by a team of 13 IPS journalists from Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, North America and Latin America.
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Has the world lived up to its 1996 commitments..?
Solidarity 2000 starting 17th of June!
MS's big summer event Solidarity 2000 will start very soon now, with a week-long variety of debates and arrangements. The activities range from encounters between young people from Balkan, Africa and Central America to big conferences on the planet's social development and environment.
Judge by yourself:
The 1996 Copenhagen Social Summit final report in English, French and Spanish.