As
UNICEF Details
Child
Mortality, Qs
of W. Sahara
Data,
Peacekeeping
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 16
-- When UNICEF
released new
child
mortality
figures, it
held an
embargoed
press
conference at
the UN on
September 15.
Inner City
Press asked
about the data
itself -- why
for example
were there 195
countries
listed, when
there are only
193 UN member
states?
The answer was
in the tables
themselves:
the State of
Palestine was
listed, as was
the Holy See
(which, of
course, has no
child data, as
least not
officially).
But was
Western
Sahara's data
reported along
with Morocco?
Was Greenland
included with
Denmark? These
questions
should be
answered.
Since many of
the countries
with highest
child
mortality also
have UN
Peacekeeping
missions there
-- Central
African
Republic,
Democratic
Republic of
Congo and
Guinea Bissau
for example --
Inner City
Press asked
the UNICEF
panel --
Mickey Chopra
and Dr Tessa
Wardlaw with
WHO's Flavia
Bustreo by
phone -- what
the UN could
actually do
about these
problems?
Reduce
conflict,
build up the
health
infrastructure.
Here's hoping.
Back on September
4, the
prevalence
worldwide of
violence
against
children was
detailed by
UNICEF, with
charts,
statistics and
polling. The
report is online here.
Inner City
Press asked
the three-person
UNICEF panel
what the UN
system itself
should be
doing about
the issue, for
example
through its
peacekeeping
missions and
the office of
the Special
Representative
on Violence
Against
Children,
Marta Santos
Pais.
The website
of that office
hasn't been
updated since
July 22. No tweets since July 25. The
response from
the UNICEF
panel was that
both “SRSGs” -
that is,
including
Children and
Armed Conflict
- get only
voluntary
funding. That
may be part of
the problem.
But even at
the current
budget, more
might be
expected of
this office
since July 22.
And in terms
of UN
Peacekeeping,
as Inner City
Press asked
the UN's
deputy
spokesperson
Farhan Haq
minutes later,
no
child support
is yet being
paid for
children left
behind in
Haiti by the
“peacekeepers.”
We'll have
more on that.
Back on August
21 when
the Gaza field
director of
UNICEF Pernilleae Ironside took questions at the UN on
August 21,
Inner City
Press asked
her when a
Board of
Inquiry into
the
destruction of
UN premises
like the UNRWA
schools will
begin. Video
here.
Ironside
said
that will be
up to the
Secretariat of
Ban Ki-moon
and UNRWA. Earlier
this week
Robert Serry
told Inner
City Press the
same thing.
But where is
the Board of
Inquiry? On
the one
conducted in
2009, Inner
City Press
reported on
how Ban
Ki-moon
allowed
himself to be
lobbied and
blunted in his cover letter
recommendations
in the report,
later shown in
detail by a
cable
published by
Wikileaks.
Does
that explain
the delay?
Inner
City Press
also asked
Ironside about
her statement
in her recent
Reddit Ask Me
Anything that
“Gaza's
economy has
been severely
depressed,
particularly
since the
closure of the
informal
tunnel system
with Egypt in
July 2013.”
Ironside said
Gazans are
well educated
and eager to
work, but
precluded from
doing so; she
said the
negotiators
should take
this into
account.
Ironside
said
she previously
served the UN
in Goma in
Eastern Congo,
and more
recently in
Yemen. With
the Houthis
now in and
around Sana'a,
that's
something we'd
like to hear
more about.
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