Australian charity says more needs to be done to protect world's child

Updated November 20, 2009 20:31:00

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the children's charity ChildFund Australia has produced a short film on children's rights.

Presenter: Sen Lam
Speaker: Nigel Spence, chief executive, ChildFund Australia

SPENCE: Yes well it was a long movement prior to the convention coming into effect in 1989, there was many people advocating for many years for a convention, for a legally binding convention. There were a number of instruments prior to the 1989 convention, but it wasn't until that time that it came together and through a series of working groups the convention was crafted to the 54 articles that we have today. And as you said in the introduction, that was hugely important because for the first time it affirmed that children as with all world citizens, have fundamental human rights.

LAM: Why has it taken until the late 20th century for us to realise that?

SPENCE: I think there's been many, many factors that have meant it's taken so long. I think for one it has been a prevailing view that in many cultures in many different countries around the world that children didn't need to be described as having rights because they were adequately protected by parents and by governments. But of course in many instances that was just not the case. It was also I think the prevailing view that children in some ways were the property of their families or the property of their communities and weren't necessarily seen as distinct unique individuals with their own human rights.

LAM: And Nigel has this convention been actually helpful to children?

SPENCE: I think without question that the convention has been hugely important. It's the most widely ratified of the United Nations treaties, and it has meant that governments around the world have been encouraged to develop laws, policies, services, specifically and directly for children.

LAM: Why has a country like the United States not ratified the convention?

SPENCE: Look it's a little difficult for me to answer that but I understand the United States has a view about not putting themselves in a situation where they're subservient to United Nations treaties. So that's extremely disappointing. The two countries that haven't ratified are United States and Somalia, are really the only exceptions. Beyond that it's virtually every nation state has endorsed this convention, and I think that sends a powerful message that at least at the political and legislative level there is recognition of the fundamental nature of children's rights.

LAM: And yet despite that recognition the UN says one billion children are still without adequate food or shelter or clean water, 200 million are still chronically malnourished. What needs to be done?

SPENCE: Yes look there's a huge amount that needs to be done. The task really is only just beginning, while there's been a lot of progress clearly there are many, many problems for children and the global financial crisis and the fluctuations in food prices have in some instances reversed and reduced the progress that's been made. So yes, there's a lot to be done, we still have 80 million children who are not in school, primary school aged children not in school. We still have nearly nine-million children under the age of five years dying each year from largely preventable illnesses. These are key areas that need to be tackled. And I think what we also have is that while the convention has led to many important laws in countries throughout the region, that's often not backed up by the policing, the services, the implementation of those laws.

LAM: And ChildFund Australia I understand works in places like Vietnam and Cambodia, where of course there's child poverty, trafficking, sexual exploitation. What kind of work are you doing there to help the children?

SPENCE: Our work in the region, particularly in Cambodia and Vietnam is largely aimed at improving basic services and basic conditions for children. So our work is with rural communities introducing clean water and sanitation, schools and improved education, basic community healthcare, food production and increasingly child protection activity to safeguard children and protect them from harm