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Statement by Counsellor YAO Shaojun of the Chinese Mission on Rights of Children at the Third Committee of the 71st General Assembly

2016-10-14 11:31

Madam Chair,

Protection and promotion of the rights of children constitute an extremely important aspect of the international human rights cause. In recent years,great progress has taken place in the global endeavor to protect the rights of children,especially in the rights of children to life, health and education. At the same time, however, in many parts of the world, poverty, hunger, disease, natural disaster, child labor, drugs, sexual violation and war and conflicts are still threatening the life and health of children and violating their rights. The global protection of the rights of children still faces multiple challenges.

Madam Chair,

With around 280 million children, China has the largest child population in the world. It has been a consistent goal of the Chinese government to provide all Chinese children with a happy and good life. China has worked relentlessly to reinforce its children protection working mechanism characterized by government guidance, inter-agency cooperation, societal oversight and collective participation. We have been implementing in earnest the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its relevant Protocols, accelerating the improvement of our legal system for the protection of the rights of children, improving the welfare system for children, advancing equity in education, promoting balanced development, and making the utmost effort to promote and protect the rights of children. We are half-way through in the implementation of the Outline for the Development of Children 2011-2020, and the mid-term evaluation carried out earlier this year by the National Working Committee on Children and Women under the State Council of China concluded that considerable results have been achieved over the past five years in the development of the Chinese children. Great progress has been made in pre-school education; some provinces have established a 15-year free education system by including pre-school and high school in public funding; the network for safeguarding the welfare of children has been strengthened with the implementation by some provinces of special safeguards for children in vulnerable situations, thus scaling up the relief for such children; the environment for children has been steadily improved and the principle of “children first” has become the consensus of the whole society.

Madam Chair,

China believes that countries need to effectively implement targets relating to children contained in the 2030 Agenda, support the UN system in playing an important role in the international cooperation for strengthening the protection of children’s rights, and support the civil society in playing a constructive part in promoting and assisting with the protection of the rights of children. The developed countries need to honor their commitments by increasing substantive assistance to the developing countries in terms of finance and technology in order to help the latter to protect the rights and interests of children, while the developing countries should share experience with one another, thus creating a better environment and more conducive conditions for the development of children throughout the world. In 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced at the Global Leaders’ Meeting on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment that China would, in the next five years, help the developing countries implement 100 Happy Campus projects and provide financial assistance to girls living in poverty for them to go to school so as to raise the enrollment ratefor girls. These assistance projects are now being implemented steadily.

Madam Chair,

The comprehensive promotion and protection of the rights of the child is an arduous task and a long journey. China will continue to fulfill its international obligations, take an active part in international cooperation, and work together with the rest of the international community to strive for “a world fit for children”.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

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