World Summit for Children

The summit had the then-largest-ever gathering of heads of state and government to commit to a set of goals to improve the well-being of children worldwide by the year 2000.

It was the first time a UN conference had set a broad agenda for a wide range of goals in health, education, nutrition and human rights.

The United Nations Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar adopted the project and gave the Summit the support of the UNICEF and other UN organizations.

The Summit agenda was highly endorsed by three main organizations- the World Health Assembly, Education for All (led by UNESCO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Executive Board.

The high point of the Summit was the joint signing of the World Declaration on the Survival, Protection, and Development of Children and a Plan of Action on September 30, 1990.

The World Declaration of the Survival, Protection, and Development of Children is subdivided into five categories: The Challenge, The Opportunity, The Task, The Commitment, and The Next Step.

The event encompassed a sense of unity and created a festive nature for the Session, but the real reason for the gathering was not forgotten.

The World Summit stands out from any other United Nations gathering because of its soundly set goals and its systematic follow up procedure.

Critics note that in many United Nations conferences, goals are ever set but never met, and that commitments on paper are rarely translated into actions.

The Canadian Medical Association Journal attributes the lack of progress to the fact that documents emerging from UN conferences are policy documents rather than legal instruments or binding treaties, but it also remarks that the Special Session on Children will set the direction for international policy with respect to children for the next decade.