Students from the tri-state area worked on migrant issues locally from a global perspective and developed their own Human Rights Declaration on Migration and Development. Students were given extensive background materials on selected sub themes such as Legal and Irregular Migrants, Voluntary and Involuntary Migrants, Discrimination, and Gender and Labor Issues as they began preparations for the December 1st United Nations Student Conference on Human Rights.

Carol Bellamy, former UNICEF executive director, met with the 400 students as the Keynote Speaker on October 30, 2006.

Bellamy noted that 80% of the world’s population is below the age of 18 and women and children predominate. She lamented that the United States and Somalia are the only countries that have not ratified the Rights of the Child Treaty, even though the treaty was largely drafted by U.S. citizens. It’s a pity that our government cannot see the advantages of becoming a signatory to the treaty, she said. She said that 39,000 children die each day from preventable causes and that 100 million primary age children –55% of them girls—are not going to school. Bellamy worked assiduously while at UNICEF to expand the education of girls worldwide. If you educate a girl, her children are less likely to die in infancy, fewer women will become victims of violence, and the family will be more stable, she said.

Ms Bellamy also added that HIV/AIDS is still a pandemic 25 years after its identification, and it is growing fastest in Russia and the Ukraine. She said that exploitation and violence occur in rich as well as poor countries. Migration takes a devastating toll on children because they are often parentless and forced to travel with those who exploit, abuse or abandon them, or leave them to their own devices.

Bellamy urged that children be protected from child labor and early marriage. Bellamy added that children should be registered at birth lest they become faceless victims of trafficking. Children must not be considered a liability, they are an investment, she said.