SUFFERING OF THE CHILDREN OF NEPAL

UNICEF urges for end to victimisation of children

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has urged all Nepali people to act seriously to protect children from being victimised in the ongoing conflict.

In a statement issued on the occasion of the 15th International Child Rights Day, Dr Suomi Sakai, representative of the UNICEF Nepal Country Office said, “"Childhood should be a time of growth, of playing, learning, exploring and developing. It should not be a time of hunger, illness or ignorance,” adding, “And, a child does not stop being a child just because she is married off at 12 and a mother at 13. She is still a child, as is a boy or girl recruited as a combatant.

Such children, according to her, are children at high risk, and thus in even greater need of care and support.

Describing the present conflict situation in Nepal as a battle in an orchard Suomi questioned, "Who is tending to the trees? Who is making sure they have enough water, nourishment, and protection from harm? For the buds on the trees are the fruit in the making, just as children are adults in the making. The cost of this conflict is becoming a bitter harvest – it is damaging our children, the future of the country."

Giving reference of a stanza Do not pluck buds, do not tear them apart, of a poem written by great poet Laxmi Prasad Devkota, she said, "I cannot think that 55 years after he died in such pain and poverty, he would be happy to see the damage that this conflict between adults is inflicting on the children (buds) of Nepal."

November 20 marks the 15th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by United Nations general Assembly.

Nepal has already expressed its commitments to international child rights norms by ratifying the UN Convention in 1990.

Child rights activists have been expressing concern over the growing victimisation of children in the conflict, urging both the government and the rebels not to violate rights of the children. nepalnews.com rh Nov 20 04

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