RESOLUTION(1)

on the situation of children in the ACP countries

The ACP-EU Joint Assembly,

- meeting in Strasbourg (France) from 29 March to 1 April 1999,

- having regard to the resolutions on matters relating to the interests of children previously adopted by the ACP-EU Joint Assembly,

- having regard to Article 244 of the current Lomé Convention,

- having regard to the Junker General Report on the "Significance of the UN World Conferences of 1990 to 1996 for cooperation between the European Union and the ACP States in the framework of the Lomé Convention",

- having regard to the European Parliament's Rocard report on the Commission communication on the guidelines for the negotiation of new cooperation agreements with the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries,

- whereas the Commission Green Paper on the future of ACP-EU development cooperation makes only one reference to young people, and none at all to children,

- having regard to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948,

- having regard to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child of 1959,

- having regard to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1976,

- having regard to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989, the only human rights document to date that has been ratified by all States, with the exception of the United States and Somalia,

- having regard to the World Summit on Social Development held in Copenhagen in 1994,

- having regard to the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995,

- having regard to the International Conference on Child Labour held in Oslo in 1997,

- having regard to EU budget heading B7-612: Preparatory actions undertaken through non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the campaign against child discrimination,

A. whereas 90 % of all children live in developing countries and every third person worldwide is a child under 15, and in some parts of Africa almost every second person is a child,

B. whereas the needs of children are not the same as those of adults, and whereas the rights of children are an inseparable, integral part of human rights,

C. whereas more than half of all child deaths are associated with malnutrition, which leads to physical and mental handicap and chronic susceptibility to disease,

D. convinced that the right to education is a fundamental right, to be granted to boys and girls alike, and whereas 130 million school-age children worldwide grow up without access to primary education, and whereas over 150 million children who start school do not complete more than four years of schooling,

E. whereas a 10 % increase in the number of girls who start primary school leads as a general rule to a drop in infant mortality,

F. whereas some 250 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 are currently working in developing countries and whereas poverty is the main reason for child labour,

G. whereas religion, custom and tradition are no excuse for tolerating the genital mutilation of girls and under-age young women,

1. Welcomes the creation of budget heading B7-6 1 2: Preparatory actions undertaken through non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the campaign against child discrimination, and calls for a legal base for this to be established;

2. Calls on the EU and all 70 signatories to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to incorporate the principles enshrined therein in their national legislation and to comply with the obligation to implement development policies geared to the needs of children;

3. Suggests, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, working towards the adoption of a Council decision which would help to give prominence to children's rights in EU development cooperation in the areas of development, trade and humanitarian aid;

4. Calls for the Post-Lomé Convention to enshrine protection of and respect for children's rights, and for the negotiations on the future of Lomé to take account of its impact on the needs of children;

5. Calls on the Commission to set up a Child Desk along the lines of those already existing in DG VIII in connection with gender, poverty and the environment, which would contribute to the evaluation and preparation of good models;

6. Suggests that a key theme of an ACP-EU Assembly should be the interests of children in development cooperation;

7. Calls, in ACP-EU cooperation, for more resources to be allocated to combating poverty and meeting fundamental needs than are currently available under the eighth development fund;

8. Calls for emergency aid measures to be implemented in areas of famine and calls on the ACP States to spend an appropriate portion of their budget on securing food supplies and basic education for their population, instead of on defence;

9. Calls for basic health services to be made as widely available as possible in the ACP States for the early treatment of disease, health education and family planning, AIDS prevention and medical care for HIV-positive children;

10. Calls on all the ACP countries to endeavour to provide nationwide access to primary education and to introduce compulsory schooling for boys and girls, at the same time providing flexible forms of education which are geared to regional population levels, numbers of school-age children, and local customs, for example mobile education provision in thinly populated areas or for population groups with nomadic life styles, and teaching of manual skills with a view to later job prospects;

11. Calls on the ACP regions to ensure that pregnant girls are on no account forced to leave school because of their pregnancy, but instead receive special support from the State and other agencies at least until the completion of their education;

12. Advocates the development of strategies to prevent child labour and calls on the EU, as well as the ACP countries, to make free educational facilities an attractive alternative to child labour which provides a long-term way of escaping from poverty, for example by the payment of wages to schoolchildren;

13. Calls on the ACP States to take direct action against child labour by outlawing child labour that is dangerous and damaging to health, as well as forms of child labour akin to slavery, laying down minimal provisions on hygiene, food and breaks from work and setting up bodies to represent young people;

14. Calls on the ACP countries to introduce more stringent national laws against sexual abuse, sex tourism and child pornography, and to ensure that they are respected;

15. Calls for close bilateral and international judicial cooperation between the EU and ACP countries which are sex tourism destinations, as well as international cooperation with law-enforcement agencies in third countries in combating sexual abuse, sex tourism and child pornography;

16. Calls on the Union, the Member States and the ACP countries to provide effective education on sexual abuse, sex tourism and child pornography, and to involve the international tourism industry in these efforts;

17. Calls on the Member States of the Union and the ACP States to make the circumcision of under-age women a punishable offence where this is not already the case and to continue, with assistance from the EU, the campaign launched by UNICEF against female genital mutilation;

18. Calls on the EU and ACP States to develop programmes to improve the situation of disadvantaged children such as orphans, street children, homeless under-age mothers and refugees;

19. Calls on the EU and ACP countries to do everything in their power to ensure that children are not required to serve as soldiers, and to take active steps against the use of anti-personnel mines and to promote the elimination of existing mines in the ACP countries;

20. Instructs its Co-Presidents to forward this resolution to the ACP-EU Council, the Commission and the United Nations Secretary-General.

(1) Adopted by the ACP-EU Joint Assembly on 1 April 1999 in Strasbourg (France).