Mr. President,

I would like to start by expressing my appreciation to Mr. Lake, the Executive Director of UNICEF, for his report. The Chinese delegation acknowledges the efforts of UNICEF in implementing the resolution on the Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review of operational activities for development of the UN system, welcomes the special focus session on Africa's children, and fully affirms its achievements in 2013 in such priority areas as early childhood survival and development, basic education and gender equality as well as its support and assistance to recipient countries in improving their capacities to implement the Convention on the Rights of the Child in the fields of statistics, thematic research and development of social security systems.

Mr. President,

The Chinese delegation endorses the public awareness initiative of UNICEF of “ Making the Invisible Visible” to stop acts of violence against children and acknowledges UNICEF’s actions in support of the efforts of certain countries to provide psychological support and medical care to victims of sexual violence. However, in various places of the world there still exit many invisible children who are among the most vulnerable. The realization of the rights of the child for these children is out of the question unless they are allowed to grow up in a healthy environment with effective support. Therefore, we should do much more for these children.

Mr. President,

The establishment of a more equitable and sustainable system of social security is an important measure to achieve the rights of the child. We are very pleased with the continuous advocacy and facilitation efforts by UNICEF in this regard. One of the goals of the China Dream is also to put in place an equitable and sustainable system of social security. The Chinese delegation would like to take this opportunity to thank UNICEF for its support of the pilot project initiated by the Ministry of Civil Affairs of China in 2013 to implement a universal welfare system for children where appropriate, under which different provinces explore innovative ways and means to provide developmental and family support to children with special needs on the basis of their own social welfare systems. The goal of this endeavor is to transform our child welfare system from a supplemental system to a more universal one.

Mr. President,

We have noticed that under core resources the income from governments in real terms was lower than the expected level for 2013 while other incomes all exceeded the expected level. We acknowledge and congratulate UNICEF for its funding efforts and its funding achievements under other resources. In the meantime, we appeal to member states to increase their contribution s to core resources as well as to humanitarian assistance. We welcome the attention of and contributions from member states to the special fund for gender equality. We expect UNICEF to gradually increase its input in the areas of basic education and gender equality.

Finally, the Chinese delegation expresses its hope that UNICEF will move with the tide of our times by strengthening its research work so as to better respond to and address the urgent issues concerning children in different regions and countries. The Chinese delegation also hopes that UNICEF will take the 25th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child as its new starting point and make new contribution for the comprehensive realization of the rights of the child.

Thank you, Mr. President.