NEWS, MEETINGS, AND REPORTS

MINUTES FOR THE NGO COMMITTEE ON UNICEF
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
5TH JUNE 2007
CHURCH CENTRE.NEW YORK

Hourig Babikian, Co-chair of the NGO Committee on UNICEF (NGOC), brought the meeting to order and requested a round of introductions from those present.

Reports from the Regional Coordinators

The NGOC had funded 3 regions for various activities with grants of upto $2500 per region. The Latin America and Caribbean region requested funds to support a meeting of the national network of NGOs and NGOs for children and adolescents of the countries of the South American sub region. The South Asia region used the funds to develop a user-friendly 'fact book' on child rights action in the countries, with ideas and experience from NGOs and networks. They also built a child's eye view assessment of good and bad developments in childen's real-life settings through a 'photo journey' to capture 'good' and 'bad' images and build a huge montage and a photo exchange within and between countries for children to record and express their concerns and their hopes/demands. Finally the Central & Eastern Europe, Commonwealth of Independent States and Baltic States requested support for the publication of updated RNC Booklet and also support the publication of RNC quarterly newsletter (printed) for 4 editions.

Copies of Jorge Freyre’s (Coordinator for the Latin American and Caribbean region) report for 2006 was available for the members to pick up at the meeting. Razia Ismail (Coordinator for South Asia) had sent in her report and this was attached to the minutes.

Reports from the Working Groups (WG)

Working Group on Girls – reported by Fulya Vekiloglu on behalf of the Chairs of the WG. On May 3, the NGOC had organised a lunch to thank the WG on Girls for their efforts at the recently commenced Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) meeting which had as its focus for this year “The elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child”. “Planning for the CSW began almost a year ago at the NGOC AGM in June 2006. The goals set by the WG on Girls for itself were : to enable girls to participate, in the preparation for and at the CSW; identify gaps in the implementation of Section L of the Beijing Platform for Action and sharing good practices and lessons learned and advocating for a strong Outcome Document which included substantive recommendations. The major activities of the WG on Girls at the CSW were : setting up of the Mary Purcell Grant for Girls, which helped sponsor 10 girls from all over the world to attend the meeting; organizing an Orientation for those girls attending the CSW for the first time; girls only caucuses, during the meeting; and co-sponsoring a “Girls Speak Out” at the UN. For more information of the activities of the Working Group please visit their website www.girlsrights.org

Working Group on Education – report presented by Carol Darcy. Major initiatives undertaken this year include: arranging speakers who address Early Childhood issues, and a Children's Program. Speakers invited to speak at the WG Education meetings included Diana Skelton a former member of the Working Group, who relocated to Madagascar in 2005 and Winnie Barron, Founder, and Catherine DeLong from the Makindu Children’s Program in Kenya. As a follow-up to the successful April 2006 children's program, Voices for Peace Across the Globe, the committee decided to mount another children's program this past April, Voices for the Earth Throughout the World. The theme, caring for the environment, was selected because the committee believes that young children's curiosity and interests in nature are nurtured during the early years of childhood. In the end, eight (8) groups of young children representing an international cross section, including Missions to the United Nations, the Turkish, Russian and Indian Missions, young children from an Italian language school, 3rd graders from a NYC public school, The United Nations After School Program and children from two dance schools performed. Mrs Moon ( The UN Secretary General’s wife) was an honoured guest at this event, including representatives from UNICEF.

Working Group on Children with Disabilities – Ms Shantha Rau presented the report on behalf of the Chair, Ms. June Waugh. The WG functions mostly through conference calls since the members were spread over the entire world. In August 2006, the WG on Children with Disabilities co-sponsored, through the generosity of the NGO Committee, a meeting to give feedback on the CRC General Comment on Children with Disabilities. This was a particularly important meeting because it was the only opportunity for the author of the General Comment document to meet in person with people with disabilities. UNICEF is to issue a Guidance Note on Inclusion of Children with Disabilities, developed through active collaboration between UNICEF colleagues at HQ and in regional and country office locations. The Guidance Note provides practical guidance on how UNICEF country offices can apply an inclusive approach to children with disabilities across the priority areas of the UNICEF’s Medium Term Strategic Plan: Young Child Survival and Development, Education, HIV/AIDS, Child Protection and Social Policy. Members of the WG on Children with Disabilities were provided with the opportunity to comment on initial drafts of the Guidance Note during a consultation in New York. Two other initiatives that this WG is working on are: The Implementation handbook Initiative in partnership with Save the Children and a Global Campaign for Education for all Children with Visual Impairment. For more information please go to the NGOC website www.ngocomunicef.org where the detailed report shall be posted.

Report on the Budget

Caroline Themm, Treasurer for the NGOC presented the budget. There were some outstanding cheques which would alter the balances at a later date, but as per the balance on Dec 31, 2006, the NGOC had $47942.04 in its Business and Money Market accounts.

A number of expenses were undertaken this year to help the WG on Girls with their activities during the CSW. Three regional projects were also funded with $2500 each.

Vote on the Revised Bylaws

Tom Kennedy outlined the major revisions in the new Bylaws. They centre around the Regions represented by the NGOC. From 9 regions we have downsized to 7 and now have representatives in Eastern & Southern Africa, Western & Central Africa, Central & Eastern Europe, Commonwealth of Independent States and Baltic States, Latin America & the Caribbean, East Asia & the Pacific, Middle East & North Africa, South Asia. To cover the other regions, a clause has been inserted in Article IV Global Forum: At least one of the six international members must have it's Headquarters in Western Europe and at least one of the six members must have it's Headquarters in the U.S.A. or Canada.

The revised Bylaws were voted for unanimously.

Elections

Tom Kennedy gave the members present a brief update on what the outgoing Global Forum members had accomplished while serving their term. The final monies from UNICEF had come to the NGOC in 2003 in the amount of $15,000. Now all UNICEF provides the NGOC is a office space, electricity and telephone costs. As such the spending in the first year of the Global Forum was conservative and then in the 2nd year onwards they used the money to support projects in the regions and also funded WG on Girls activities at the CSW. Two or three briefings per year have been organised for the membership to keep them abreast on the latest developments at the UN. The website has been the primary vehicle for disseminating information to members. The new Global Forum members main tasks will be to fundraise and to work on getting a 501© 3 status.

The members of the NGOC present voted for a new Global forum. The six international members voted for are : Baha’I International Community (Fulya Vekiloglu), International Movement A.T.D. Fourth World (Vicki Soanes), Soroptimist International (Caroline Themm), SOS Kinderdorf International (Elisabeth Shuman), Virginia Gildersleeve International Fund (Dagmar Mcgill), and Zonta International (Jackie Shapiro).

Feedback from the NGOC World Fit for Children Review +5

The NGOC and the NGO Committee on Child Rights organised a briefing on May 24, 2007, as NGOs were requesting for information on this event. Speakers were invited from UNICEF, the General Assembly President’s office and from the Uruguayan Mission. Main issues reported at the Briefing were:

• There was a high level plenary planned for December 11 and 12, 2007 to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the World Fit for Children.
• Two round tables were being planned where 10 NGOs each would participate.
• The two key concerns of the discussions were whether the Outcome Document will turn out to be a political document and the second was the participation of NGOs.
• For the Special Session on Children, ECOSOC NGOs, NGOs in partnership with UNICEF and “other” NGOs were allowed to participate. The “other” NGOs were mostly organizations from the southern regions. Now it is being debated whether these NGOs will be allowed to attend.
• The Latin American and Caribbean Countries would prefer the Outcome Document to be a political declaration made up by member states; a view not shared by all members states – some of them take the position that a statement by the GA President is adequate. The aim is to have a re-confirmation of commitments stated in A World Fit for Children.
• A detailed report is available on the NGOC website www.ngocomunicef.org

Gangs’ issue

After the report on Violence Against Children was issued by the UN, the NGOC realised that it wanted to focus on the issue of how gang activity was impacting children negatively on a global scale. Bill Niepoth from World Leisure, a member organization of NGOC was given the task to draft a short statement on this issue, basing his comments on the Violence Against Children study, feedback from NGOC Regional Representatives and research that he carried out independently. The goal of the NGOC was to deliver a statement on this subject at the June UNICEF Executive Board meeting and to take this paper and lobby this issue with the Governments who were members of the UNICEF Executive Board. Carol Themm and Yvonne Keairns had volunteered to do the rounds of the Missions and meet with representatives, present them with the paper and bring this issue to their attention.

The June UNICEF Executive Board Agenda however had no corresponding subject that could be addressed by this paper and it is hoped that the work will be carried forward by the new Global Forum.

Special Representative for Violence Against Children

Hourig Babikian gave a short introduction to the topic. On May 15, 2007 the NGOC organised a briefing on this subject and invited Jo Becker and Cristina Barbaglia to share with the group the information they had and the developments so far. The recently commenced UN Study on Violence Against Children by Professor Paulo Pinheiro recommended the establishment of a Special Representative to the Secretary General (SRSG) to address the issue of Violence Against Children. The Graca Machel on Children in Armed Conflict had led to the establishment of the post of the Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict. The SRSG would continue to maintain visibility of this issue, work with member states to implement the recommendations of the UN Study, coordinate the efforts of various UN Agencies and be the focal point for NGOs and Agencies. Last year the GA was not ready to take a decision to establish the post so it has been postponed to this year. Cristina Barbaglia from Save the Children Alliance has put together a one page statement to lobby missions and she also had a list of the Missions to visit. For more information please write to cristina@save-children-alliance.org.

As there was no other business the meeting was brought to a close with a vote of thanks to the outgoing chairs of the Global Forum – Hourig Babikian and Tom Kennedy.