A team of UNICEF Ambassadors are raising their voices or activating their social media networks to help spur action for the world’s most vulnerable children as part of the agency’s Fight Unfair campaign.
Ambassadors include Orlando Bloom, Liam Neeson, Sir Roger Moore, Shakira, Ricky Martin, Priyanka Chopra, Novak Djokovic and Angelique Kidjo.
Nearly 14 million children and adolescents in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan face war, conflict and injustices every day, fuelling the current refugee and migrant crisis in Europe.
“It is shocking to think that one in nine children lives in a country affected by armed conflict, witnessing horrific violence and having their rights to survival, health and education destroyed,” said British actor and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Orlando Bloom.
“I travelled with UNICEF to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Serbia to see how war is driving children and their families from their homes. The world is facing the biggest refugee crisis since World War II. Every country that can, should be supporting the children and the families who have been affected,” he stressed.
In his message on Universal Children’s Day, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon emphasized the importance of ensuring that the commitments made by the international community to the world’s children are extended to a group of children who are often forgotten or overlooked –those deprived of their liberty.
“Far too many children languish in jail, mental health facilities or through other forms of detention,” he stated. “Some children are vulnerable because they are migrants, asylum seekers, homeless or preyed on by organized criminals. Whatever the circumstances, the Convention dictates that the deprivation of liberty must be a measure of last resort, and for the shortest time.”
He added that the global community’s aim “must be to pursue the best interests of the child, prevent the deprivation of liberty and promote alternatives to detention.”
