New York, Jun 5th, 2010  - In a vast field, a sinewy, dark-skinned man bends at the waist, slicing stalks of wheat with a small machete. In a village, a mother gently places her infant son, slung in a piece of blue fabric, onto a vegetable scale housed in a makeshift clinic.On the ground, three pairs of nimble hands sort through a pile of turnips in silence. Two girls walk to school. A baby cries. A mother laughs.These images are intercut with startling statistics: 48 percent of Bengali children under five are malnourished. One-third of the country's child morality is a direct result of severe malnourishment. Malnourished mothers give birth to malnourished children. The cycle continues....

New York, 4th June 2010 - A lack of skilled attendants at birth accounts for two million preventable maternal deaths, stillbirths and newborn deaths each year, according to the newly released Countdown to 2015 Decade Report (2000-2010).The report shows that nearly 50 percent of women in the 68 countries carefully tracked in the Countdown report —most of which are in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia— still give birth without the aid of a trained midwife, nurse, doctor, or other skilled birth attendant.Only 10 of the 68 Countdown countries have increased the rate of skilled care at childbirth by at least 10 percent since 1990.Eleven countries made no progress, according Countdown to 2015,...

Naciones Unidas, 4 de junio de 2010 – La primera versión, elaborada por S.E. Sr. Paul Badji y S.E. Sr. Carsten Staur, Representantes Permanentes de las Misiones Permanentes de Senegal y Dinamarca en las Naciones Unidas, ha sido puesta en circulación entre todos los miembros de la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas y otras organizaciones de la Sociedad Civil con el fin de que se hagan recomendaciones para ser acogidas en la versión final que será presentada en la Cumbre ODM ONU+10 en septiembre de 2010 en Nueva York. (Puede descargarse el documento haciendo clic en el vínculo “Keeping the Promise – United to achieve the Millennium Development Goals”). El Movimiento Global...

Barcelona, 1o de junio de 2010 – La prestigiosa revista de investigación en medicina ‘The Lancet’ publicó recientemente alentadores datos nuevos sobre los progresos alcanzados para cumplir el Objetivo 4 del Desarrollo del Milenio, que se refiere a reducir la tasa de mortalidad infantil en 2/3 para 2015. La publicación evaluó los niveles y tendencias de la mortalidad infantil en 187 países desde 1970 a 2010, para mirar si existen progresos hacia la consecución del Objetivo 4 de los ODM. Los resultados revelan que en el mundo entero la mortalidad en niños menores de 5 años bajó de 11,9 millones de muertes en 1990 a 7,7 millones en 2010, distribuidas así: 3,1 millones de muert...

26th May 2010 - In addition to banning the use of child soldiers, the optional protocols call for an end to sexual exploitation of children through trafficking, child prostitution, and child pornography. Marta Santos Pais, special representative of the secretary-general for violence against children, explains that progress has been made in the decade since the passage of the Optional Protocols, but there is more work to be done. Citing the statistic of 115 million children that are currently involved in hazardous, exploitative work, Pais says that the universal ratification of the protocol will "establish the campaign as a legal imperative" and "change the mindset concerning the exploitati...

25th May 2010, New York – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake and other child-rights advocates came together at UNICEF headquarters in New York this morning, calling for all countries to take extra steps aimed at protecting children from violence and exploitation. Ten years ago, the UN General Assembly adopted two Optional Protocols supplementing the wide-ranging human rights protections of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, or CRC. The protocols offer additional protection for children who are vulnerable to armed conflict, or to being sold or exploited for purposes of prostitution or pornography Today’s UNICEF House panel was organized to c...