Children's Day celebrated

Thousands of Iranian children from all walks of life have been celebrating the UN Children's Fund's (UNICEF) World Children's Day Festival, while some aid workers said the government should be doing more to help its young people. Stalls aimed at raising public awareness of children's rights have been entertaining the young festival-goers, and the week's events culminated in a round-table discussion and a concert performed by Tehran's street children. "Children's Day isn't just symbolic; in fact, we are moving from an entirely ceremonious and symbolic Children's Day to a more substantial one, from something which simply happens once a year to something which really engages sectors in society," Hamid Marashi, a UNICEF information officer, told IRIN But Iran has so far failed to integrate the objectives outlined in last year's UN publication, entitled "The State of the World's Children", into its five-year socioeconomic and cultural plan, thereby leaving many of its children still living in poverty. With about 34 percent of Iran's population being under 15, and about 11 percent of children under five remaining under-weight for their age, the government needed to adopt a more pragmatic approach and clearer guidelines to tackle the problems of its poor children, Leila Arshad, the managing director of the Iranian NGO, Society for Protection the Rights of the Child, told IRIN. "The government has not said which conventions they accept and which they reject. They need to tell us exactly what fields we are allowed to work in," she said. "We also have to change our laws to fit in more with international children's rights, while at the same time adhering to Islamic laws. Only then will we be able to be really effective."