Statement by the Delegation of the United States of America
Human Rights Council 13th Session
Statement delivered by Brian Bauer
Geneva, March 10, 2010
Thank you, Mr. President.
We are pleased to participate in this panel on the rights of the child.
The United States is committed to the protection and well-being of children both domestically and internationally. At home, an extensive array of federal, state, and local programs promote child welfare and seek to protect children from harm.
Internationally, UNICEF is a key partner in our global efforts to protect children. We fully support its initiatives to improve children’s health care and education, to protect children from violence and exploitation, and to advocate on their behalf. We particularly appreciate UNICEF’s work in emergency situations, its polio eradication efforts, and its work toward the Millennium Development Goals related to both universal primary education and the elimination of gender disparity in education.
Similarly, the United States is committed to ending child labor around the world. Since 1995, we have provided some $680 million to more than 60 organizations, including the ILO, for programs that combat exploitative child labor in 80 countries. These programs have helped rescue over 1.3 million child laborers around the globe and offer them new hope though education and training opportunities.
The United States is party to the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Pornography, and Child Prostitution as well as the Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. In addition, we are pleased to have joined consensus on the Rights of the Child resolution in the UN General Assembly this year. We share these documents’ common goal of protecting children, and we salute the spirit embodied in them. Much remains to be done, and we look forward to working with the international community to further strengthen our collective efforts to improve the welfare and well-being of children throughout the world.
Thank you, Mr. President.