UNICEF Lauds Iran’s Performance in Supporting Children

“Based on the global health indices and standards, the status of the Iranian children is very appropriate and the Iranian governments have had many achievements in this area such as decreasing the death rate of under-five-year-old children, which means a larger number of children get the chance to live,” the UNICEF representative in Iran, Muhammad Munir Safiyuddin, said at a press conference on the World Children’s Day after a celebration on the occasion.

“Of course this does not mean that there is no problem in Iran, because there is no country without problems, but school attendance rates of 98% are remarkable around the globe,” he said.

Safiyuddin also referred to the eradication of fatal diseases and vaccination, particularly against polio in Iran, as quite satisfactory, saying in these programs Iran is comparable with the developed countries.

In 1954 to protect children from having to work long hours in unsafe conditions and allow all children to have access to learning, the UN General Assembly recommended that all countries should establish a Universal Children's Day on an "appropriate" day. 

UNICEF presence in Iran goes back to the early 1950s. Its cooperation with Iran initially focused on child health and nutrition, which later on expanded to include education, child protection, HIV/AIDS prevention, child rights monitoring and child poverty reduction. 

In countries like Iran, which is considered upper middle income country, UNICEF does not provide services to children and adolescents directly but concentrates instead on contributing to the formulation of child-related policies and the design and implementation of mechanisms for putting these policies into practice.