Today, November 20th, marks the day on which the United Nations Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, in 1959, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in 1989. Universal Children's Day.
In a press release UNICEF USA issed an appeal to the public to get involved with the Presidential Initiative target to save 9.2 million children annually. UNICEF called the death of 25,000 children worldwide each day “profoundly shameful and unnecessary,” as they launched "Believe in Zero," a campaign which is target towards both the public and policy makers to reduce the number of preventable child deaths that occur daily to zero.
"These children are not dying from incurable diseases or causes. These children are dying from diarrhea, pneumonia, measles and malaria‚ things that cost pennies to treat or prevent," said Caryl Stern, President and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. "It is unacceptable and inexcusable that defenseless children continue to die when the technology, expertise and solutions to save them exist right now."
According to UNICEF an annual investment of one billion dollars over the next 5 years in those countries with the highest child mortality rates could eliminate 3 million child deaths by 2012.
