China makes great efforts to promote child development - Official
( 2002-05-09 10:50 ) (8 )

A senior Chinese official said in the United Nations Wednesday that China has made unremitting efforts to improve the environment for children's survival, development, protection and participation.

Chinese State Councilor Wu Yi made the statement in her speech to the UN General Assembly Special Session on Children, which opened on Wednesday and brought together some 3,000 delegates from more than 180 countries, including some 70 heads of state or government and 400 children.

"Taking good care of children and bringing them up healthily is a traditional virtue of the Chinese nation," she said. "It has been the consistent policy of the Chinese government to stick to the principle of 'children first' and to fully protect their rights to survival, development, protection and participation."

"With a good government and a united people, as well as a sustained economic growth rate of 10.1 percent, China has in the past decade laid a solid foundation for the improvement and development of the living conditions for children," she said.

"Since the World Summit for Children, the Chinese government has been active in honoring its commitments, conscientiously improving the environment for the survival and development of children and safeguarding their legitimate rights, and has made unremitting efforts for the promotion of child development," she said.

China has promulgated "the National Program of Action for Children Development in China in the 1990s," prioritizing child development in the country's economic and social development, and giving stronger and all-out support to the cause of children, said Wu, who is also the head of the Chinese delegation to the current special session.

The Chinese government has also issued a series of laws and regulations to provide legal protection for children's legitimate rights and interests such as "the Law for the Protection of Minors ", "the Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests", " the Law on Maternal and Child Healthcare" and "the Law on Education", she said.

"In addition, we have made sure that the general public get actively involved on the issue of children and have given full play to the role of nongovernmental organizations, communities, families and the mass media," she said.

"Up to date, China has basically achieved the global objectives set forth at the World Summit for Children," she said.

"At the same time, we are keenly aware that China, with a large population and territory, is restrained by its economic and social development level," she said. "So there are a lot of difficulties and problems in child development."

In this connection, China has enacted "the National Program of Action for Children Development in China (2001-2010)", on the basis of an analysis of the case of 350 million Chinese children, and promulgated it for implementation, with a view to providing better guidance for the cause of child development in China, she said.

"I am convinced that, as a country with a large population of children, China's achievement will make an important contribution to the development of the world's cause of children," she added.