Press Release

8 November 2003, New Delhi - Children from 11 states of India gather in Delhi to open the first Children's Parliament on the Right to Education. Selected among the groups of children who spoke out about their experiences of being denied an access to quality education in their own local states, 80 children will attend sessions for the next 2 days to discuss and come up with concrete demands on ensuring their right to education.

These children are representing not only 35 million primary-school-age Indian children, but also the 115 million children who have never set a foot in school in their childhood. "I used to work as a domestic help and watched other children going to school while I worked. But, now I am very happy with a chance to go to school, and I am proud to be here to speak for the children around the world, like me, who have been denied a chance of education," says Vijay, traveling from a rehabilitation center for former bonded child labourers in Rajasthan.

The Children's Parliament is organised just before the Indian Government plays host to the third annual High-Level Group Meeting on Education for All (EFA) - attended by Heads of the States and of the UN agencies, Ministers of Education and civil society leaders from around the world, in order to track the progress of the international community's commitment to ensure all children are in school by the year 2015. This is one of the goals set out at the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal, by 181 governments in 2000 as part of EFA goals, also reflected on the Millennium Development Goal.

Two of the world leaders from the High-Level Group, Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNIECF, and Koichiro Matsuura, Director General of UNESCO will meet the children on November 10, at the Open Session for sharing the learning from the Parliament.

The Global Campaign for Education (GCE), which is the organiser of the Children's Parliament, has participated in the HLG since the year 2000 and expects much stronger outcome from the High
Level Group. "The leaders of the world who gather at the High Level Group each year lack the sense of urgency. The Children's Parliament will put a human face to the challenges and responsibilities that we have ahead of us. The participants at the meeting will not be able to give vague answers to the children, nor can they say truthfully that we are doing everything we can - not in the face of these children," says Kailash Satyarhti, Chairperson of the GCE.

The GCE, an international coalition of development NGOs and teachers in about 180 countries, has come together with the Global March Against Child Labour, the local host of the event, and with the Commonwealth Education Fund, to ensure children's voices are heard at the top level of education policy making.

The Children Parliamentarians represent 11 themes reflecting common obstacles faced by the children in India and around the world in attaining their right to education, including quality of education, victims of conflicts, HIV/AIDS, child labour and gender, minority discriminations. The world has said it aloud that education is a key to ending child labour, a key to development and a key to building a just society, but the glimpse of the situations represented by 80 children at the Parliament clearly shows that their words are not met by actions - not with the same sense of urgency heard in the voices of these children.

For more information, please contact:

International Secretariat
Global March Against Child Labour
L-6 Kalkaji, New Delhi 110019 India
Tel: (91 11) 2622 4899, 2647 5481
Fax: (91 11) 2623 6818
E-mail: childhood@globalmarch.org
Website: http://www.globalmarch.org

The Global March is one of the largest international movement in protection of the children’s rights, especially the right to free, quality education and the right to be free from economic exploitation.