Statement by the Permanent Mission of El Salvador to the United Nations on behalf of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC)

October 9

Mr. Chair,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the Member States of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).

Our Delegations thank the Secretary-General for the reports submitted to the General Assembly under this agenda item.

CELAC countries are strongly committed to the promotion and protection of the rights of Children and ensuring that no child is left behind.

CELAC Members reaffirm that the Convention on the Rights of the Child is the highest standard in the promotion and protection of the rights of children and adolescents. In this regard, we welcome the increasing number of ratifications of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocols thereto and we make a strong call towards their universal acceptance.

The full and effective promotion, protection and enjoyment of the rights of children and adolescents are a priority for Latin American and Caribbean countries. The leadership of our region is well recognized in advancing the agenda on the rights of the child. Nevertheless, we should keep in mind the challenges we still face in reaching all goals and international commitments related to the well-being and rights of children.

As a region integrated mostly by middle income countries, we still have important challenges to fully protect the rights of children. We are working to address vulnerabilities resulting from poverty in all its forms and dimensions and inequality, but also from cultural and social factors, particularly racial and ethnicity discrimination and gender inequalities. Progress achieved is also exposed to different risks, such as the effects of global financial crisis, natural disasters, and multidimensional challenges resulting from violence, organized crime, smuggling of migrants, human and drug trafficking, which mostly affect groups and peoples in vulnerable situations, with a particularly increasingly negative effect on Latin American and Caribbean children´s quality of life.

Mr. Chair,

Education is a human right, a social investment and one of the most important public good to achieve the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and its SDG´s, ensuring that no one is left behind including our children and adolescents. This human right is the mean to guarantee to present and future generations more and better opportunities in a globalized world. We believe in the importance of improving the quality and equity in education in order to ensure the social inclusion of children, adolescents and young people in all education services from primary to higher education in order to eradicate poverty and inequality.

We also recognize that investing in all children and youth is imperative for building the human capital required to turn demographic transitions into grown dividends that reduce poverty and generate prosperity.

We welcome the adoption of the New York Declaration on Refugees and Migrants, as well as the ongoing preparatory process for the global compact on safe, regular and orderly migration. We are concerned by situations that children face in the context of large migratory movements, particularly unaccompanied children, including adolescents. We are aware that this migration may be the result of diverse causes and factors, and therefore, we recognize the importance of coordinating efforts between countries and international organizations, to address this situation.

And as is customary, Member States from our region will put forward the GRULAC/EU sponsored omnibus resolution on the “Rights of the Child” under this agenda item, with the theme for this year being “Violence against Children”.

Mr. Chair,

We attach great importance to international cooperation and the right to development, as well as supporting the design, implementation and evaluation of national public policies promoting the well-being of children and adolescents.

Violence is widespread and pervasive and affects children of all ages, leaving long-lasting scars on children’s lives and often has irreversible consequences on their development and well-being and on their opportunities to thrive later in life; and weakening the very foundation of social progress, generating huge costs for society, slowing economic development and eroding nations’ human and social capital.

In this regard, we acknowledge the need to prevent and eliminate bullying among children everywhere. We recognize that bullying, including cyberbullying, can take both direct and indirect forms, from acts of violence and aggression to social exclusion, and that, although rates differ from country to country, bullying, online or in person, can have a negative impact on the rights of the child, disproportionately affecting children who are marginalized or vulnerable, who face stigmatization, discrimination or exclusion and is among children’s main concerns, affecting a high percentage of children and compromising their health, emotional well-being and academic work.

CELAC members reiterate the need to strengthen efforts to implement programmes for realizing child rights in early childhood with equity, involving the support of international organizations through the development of specific early childhood programmes, and to further enhance the efforts of the international community to improve cooperation to assist developing countries in achieving all internationally agreed development goals. Early childhood development policies and strategies, including adequate nutrition, should be supported as a way to break the cycles of poverty with the aim to eradicating poverty and hunger in order to achieve sustainable development.

Moreover, we recently celebrate the first review of the Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS, which was adopted the last year. In this sense, we have committed to taking all appropriate steps to progressively eliminate new HIV infections among children and to ensure the elimination of mother-to-child HIV transmissions.

To conclude Mr. Chair,

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development gives us the opportunity to address gaps in implementation as well as the uneven progress in the realization of the universal rights of children. It contributes to the advancement of the agenda to promote and protect the human rights of children, and addresses issues important to children, such as climate change, which were not considered in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international human rights instruments.

CELAC underscores the importance of achieve 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to contribute to ensure the full and effective enjoyment of the rights of the child. The advancement of global poverty eradication efforts requires the full commitment of the international community, including through the mobilization of all necessary resources and support in this regard, as well as a multifaceted approach to ensure the promotion and protection of the human rights of children.

I thank you,