16 - 22 May 2002
Issue No.586
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 16 - 22 May 2002 Issue No.586 |
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A start of sorts
Thomas McDermott, UNICEF's regional director for the Middle East and North Africa region, speaks to Dahlia Hammouda about his assessment of the outcome of the UN special session on children -- the highlights, the achievements and the challenges that remain. Having recently been in the Palestinian occupied territories to carry out work integral to UNICEF's objective of protecting children in situations of armed conflict, McDermott sheds light on the plight of Palestinian children, how their basic rights have been trampled upon and the life- saving protection and assistance being offered by UNICEF despite the serious obstacles it faces.
What are your thoughts on the results of this special session?
I think that in terms of what we learned, it was a very powerful demonstration of the value of diverse voices. Those who made the best points were often the children and that tells us a lot about what we ought to be doing in future meetings, in our own internal processes and also in our external ones where we work with states.
Do you think the official delegates have really taken into consideration what the children said?
Some did, some didn't. As you know, people come to these events with preset statements and they have to read them and this becomes rather heavy. I think that many of them listened carefully, though, and the inter-generational dialogues, in particular, resulted in some real back and forth. Many leaders were really surprised at what the kids told them. As far as changing processes of government, we have got a long way to go. But it's a start and I think it's a very important one.
Have the contentious issues raised by the delegates hindered the issuing of an effective final document?
It's unusual that the issuing of the outcome document should go to the last day of the meeting. But it's important that the process happens. We might not agree with all the views we are hearing, but at the end of the day, we got a final product that represents what the world -- the United Nations -- thinks. If everybody has agreed upon more than 90 per cent of the document, which is the case, that is already an achievement.
You have recently returned from the Palestinian occupied territories. What's it like for children there?
It's very bad. I will be going again this coming week. Of course, we are very nervous about what may happen in the next few days. When I was there two weeks ago I saw a little bit of improvement from my visit a week or so before. Kids are now going back to school and social services are beginning to run again. So you can say that there was something of a return to normal, but of course normal is not really normal either. The services were not good in the first place and during the month- long lockdown, it was really terrible for children because they were locked up in their houses and they were surrounded by soldiers, tanks and aircraft. For those who had no electricity or water for some days, it was even worse. In places like Jenin, worse still.
What has happened to the records at the Palestinian ministries? Have these been irreparably damaged?
Very badly damaged. The ministries were trashed, including the Ministry of Education and the Central Bureau of Statistics, which are critical to our work. We spent considerable time with the ministries in trying to develop systems. The EU and some countries have invested a lot of money to do this. The computers were badly hit, computer files were taken and a lot of paper files were taken or destroyed. But in some cases, computer backups were available so they were able to recover some of the basics, especially at the Education Ministry. But if the data of the statistics bureau is gone, that's bad for a lot of social services.
How has UNICEF been helping Palestinian children and how will it be helping them in the near future?
Well, of course, right now UNICEF is providing emergency services. So one thing is to try to get education going again, to get the schools functioning and get the ministry running as best as it can. Another is extending trauma services. We already have an emergency-counselling programme, but now that has to be enormously expanded and intensified. And health services, too, need to be expanded. The immunization programme needs to get going again and so do normal pediatric services. I think we will be seeing the health side come back fairly quickly. I was very impressed by how fast the education services came back. We never thought so many schools would open again so quickly.
Is your work being hindered in any way by Israeli intervention?
Access remains a critical issue, not just for us, but also for all international agencies. Being able to move is crucial. It's not just a question of being able to move us, but to move our local staff, our equipment and being able to provide material. It's the kind of randomness that makes it so difficult to operate because one morning you've got a permit and an hour or so later, it's off and something has been closed. So it's very hard to run a real programme. And, of course, in many of the towns surrounded with troops, people who live there -- such as teachers -- can't get into work.
What happened to the resolution on Palestine, which the special session was expected to come up with?
I think it's very important that the world knows what happened a couple of nights ago with the resolution on Palestine. Trying to make a resolution effective means trying to zero in on the things that are important for operations. I would like to see attention, for instance, to the access issue and to education. In other words, to put it in carefully defined terms that would really help us to move it along. We all understand that broad problems are at the root of the situation. At the same time, to move us along, it's good to see a focus on specific problems that maybe both sides can't come to an agreement upon, but at least we can work towards.
There has been concern among delegates to the special session that the discussions at the meetings will remain rhetoric, especially given that since the 1990 World Summit for Children the called for actions to improve children's lives have not taken place. What will it take for this special session to move words into action?
I think a lot has happened for children in the last decade. We just did our end-of-the-decade report for the region and it was really impressive. In the Middle East, more than in any other region, there's been a lot of improvement, especially in health care status, status of women and education. There are clearly a lot of things that still need doing -- such as quality of education, full completion, girls' education and maternal mortality. There are new threats too, HIV, for example. There are things changing and the region has to be aware of that. I think one thing that really worked well for the region after 1990 was the establishment of the child's rights committee and the fact that countries had a national plan of action and a reporting mechanism. In many countries, that has been a very valuable process, because they have to produce a report every three years and say what they've done. The committee in Geneva has been very professional, very non-political and very tough, coming back with clear things that need doing and saying where they think the deficiencies are -- in terms of laws or in the delivery of services. I am really hopeful that this process will continue and that countries in the region will continue to take it seriously.
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