During the presentation of the new report “Progress for Children: a Report on Child Protection”, UNICEF representative to Havana, José Juan Ortiz, expressed that the political will of the Cuban government is the one responsible for these achievements.

Ortiz pointed out that, in spite of the over 50-year US blockade of the island and of the limitations typical of a developing country, Cuba devotes the necessary resources to guarantee the health, education and other rights of the little ones.

While Cuba guarantees that all newborns have legal identity, some 51 million children from around the world born in 2007 don’t have it, he stressed.

This figure, along with others, is presented for the first time in this type of report.

While sharing the presentation of the document with the head of the National Center for Sex Education, Mariela Castro, the official described Cuba’s legislation as one of the clearest in terms of children’s legalization, who –under the protection of that law- do not commit crimes, but acts typified as such.

Unlike the island’s panorama, over one million children are under arrest by legal systems in the world, according to conservative figures, and, from January 2005 to date, five countries have applied the death penalty to children.

He recalled that the continuity of classes was guaranteed on the island after the devastation caused by three hurricanes in 2008, which shows the priority given to children by the Cuban state.

More than one billion children on the planet live in countries or territories affected by armed conflicts, some 300 million of which are under five years of age, reveals the document.

With the presentation of this report, UNICEF calls all governments to action, with the purpose of creating a protective environment for children, which favors, among other actions, the promotion of the participation of children and their autonomy.

In this regard, Ortiz underlined the role of the Jose Marti Pioneer Children Organization, by way of which Cuban children have the possibility of expressing themselves, even met in congress.

On this occasion, the publication has a special nature, for coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the existence of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, signed by over 190 countries. One of the few nations that haven’t signed the document is the United States.