AMMAN, May 16 (AFP) - Queen Rania of Jordan on Wednesday signed the "Say Yes for Children" document officially launching a UN campaign aimed at collecting millions of pledges across the world to protect children.
The initiative seeks world endorsement of 10 principles, including the needs to protect children from war, fight against the HIV virus and AIDS, stop the exploitation of children, educate them, combat poverty and protect their environment.
The UN hopes to collect millions of pledges before September 19 when the next United Nations General Assembly holds a three-day special session to discuss progress since the 1990 World Summit on Children.
Jordan is hoping to gather one million pledges.
Queen Rania is spearheading the campaign along with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and South African statesman Nelson Mandela.
"Here is an opportunity to let leaders throughout the world know that we expect them to act, sooner rather than later, to ensure the rights of every child," Mandela said in April at a UN ceremony unveiling the campaign.
The 30-year-old wife of Jordan's King Abdullah II is a patron for several organisations that protect women and children's rights and has lent her support to several groups that encourage the development of Jordan's youths.
While all but two countries have ratified the 1990 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, there are an estimated two million child prostitutes worldwide and about 300,000 child soldiers; one child in three fails to complete five years of basic schooling.
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