CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
United Nations children‟s fund is an agency of the United Nations responsible for program to aid education and the health of children and the mothers in developing countries. UNICEF is the world‟s leading organization focusing on children and child rights. UNICEF is the world leading advocate for children with strong presence in 190 countries. UNICEF (united nation children fund). UNICEF is a United Nations program headquartered in New York City. It is one of the members of the United Nations development group and its executive committee. UNICEF was created by the United Nations general assembly on December 11, 1946 to provide emergency food and health care to children in countries that had been divested by World War II. In 1953 UNICEF became a permanent part of the United Nations system and its name was shortened from the original United Nations international children emergency fund but it has continued to be known by the popular acronym based on the previous title. UNICEF relies on contributions from the governments and private donors.
Governments contribute two third of the organization‟s resources; private groups and some 6million individuals contribute the rest through the national committees it is estimated that 91.8% of their revenue is distributed to program services. UNICEF‟s programs emphasize developing community level services to promote the health and well-being of children. Most of UNICEF work is in the field, with staff in over more than 200 country offices carryout UNICEF mission through a program developed with host government seventeen regional offices provides technical assistances to country offices as needed. UNICEF supply division based in Copenhagen and serves as the primary points of distributions for such essential items as vaccines, antiretroviral medicines for children and mothers with HIV, nutritional supplements, emergency shelters, educational supplies, among others. UNICEF is an intergovernmental organization (IGO) and thus is accountable to those governments. UNICEF is the main UN organization defending, promoting and protecting children‟s rights. It also works towards protecting the world‟s most disadvantage children. UNICEF believes that children have the rights to;
- Rights to adequate nutrition.
- Rights to education.
- Rights to health.
- Rights to participate.
- Rights to protection.
UNICEF have 36 national committees that promotes children‟s rights, raise funds etc. child rights are the human rights of children with particular attention to the rights of special protection are care afforded to minors, including the rights to associate with both parents, human identity as well as the basic needs for food, universal state-paid education, health care and criminal laws appropriate for the age and development of the child, equal protection of the child „s civil rights and freedom from discrimation on the basic of child‟s race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, color, ethnicity or other characterizes. A child is any human being below the age of 18years unless the under law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier. The term “child” often but does not necessarily mean minor, but can include adult as well as adult non-independent children.