 Israel 1951 |  Israel 1950 |
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Lobbying and Advocacy
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The Child Friendly City Initiative
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#EndViolence
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Children's Rights Trustees
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UNICEF Youth Presidium
UNICEF's History in Israel
UNICEF’s global roots trace back to its foundation in 1946. Dr. Ludwig Rajchman, a Jewish doctor and Poland’s UN delegate, was a world leader in public health. Dr Raichman strongly believed that founding an organization to give humanitarian aid to children who had lost their homes, families, and communities in World War II, was critical to rebuilding international unity. The UN formally established UNICEF in 1946 with Dr. Rajchman as its first global Chairman. He served until 1951.
In 1948, with the establishment of the State of Israel, UNICEF was one of the first international agencies to provide humanitarian assistance to the young country. UNICEF provided daily food rations, blankets, medical supplies and other essentials for over 500,000 mothers and children for 18 months. UNICEF’s immunization program in Israel in the early 1950s was the first of its kind in the region. In those same years UNICEF also provided critical financial and technical support for the development of the Israeli dairy industry.
UNICEF’s history in Israel began a new chapter when the State’s growth and development enabled it to become a UNICEF donor. The first Israeli Fund for UNICEF was founded by Ms. Zena Harman in 1969. As a delegate of the Israeli government to the UNICEF Executive Board, Ms. Harman served as the Board’s Chair and in 1965 she accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of UNICEF. Upon returning to Israel, Ms. Harman was elected the first Chair of the Israeli Fund for UNICEF.
The State of Israel continued to receive assistance from UNICEF in times of emergency, despite Israel’s status as a UNICEF donor state. After the Yom Kippur War in 1973 UNICEF helped to rebuild damaged and destroyed kindergartens. Following the 2nd Lebanon War, in 2006, UNICEF provided emergency support for psychosocial therapy for children in Tel Chai in northern Israel, and, following the continuing regional conflict in southern Israel, a similar center for psychosocial therapy for children was opened in the winter of 2008-09 in Sderot.
Lobbying, Advocacy and Advancing Legislation
The Israeli Fund for UNICEF aims to advance awareness and familiarity with the International Convention on the Rights of the Child within Israeli society. One of the key objectives is to position IFU as the organization most concerned and active in children's rights issues in the spirit of the Convention. This is achieved through advancing national legislation, combined with lobbying and advocacy with various national authorities – Government Ministries, Local Authorities and partner organisations in Israel and worldwide.
The Child Friendly City Initiative
The CFCI- the Child Friendly City Initiative aims to guide cities and other systems of local governance in the inclusion of children’s rights as a key component of their goals, policies, programs and structures.
The role of local government in the fulfilment of children’s rights was officially placed on the agenda in 1992 in Dakar, Senegal, when the Mayors Defenders of Children Initiative was launched
by UNICEF.
Within this framework, a wave of child-centered activities and programs took shape and were initiated at the local level.
UNICEF Youth Presidium
Members of UNICEF Youth Presidium participate in an annual study program of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child; participate in Knesset Committee debates and public debates relevant to Children's Rights. The activities are carried out in close professional cooperation with the Chief Superintendent of Children's Rights Law at the Ministry of Education and as part of UNICEF's Children's Rights Trustees that is active in schools nationwide.
Civil Responsibility - Children's Rights Trustees
Children's Rights Trustees is a unique project developed by the Chief Superintendent for Implementation of the Students Law in the Education Ministry, in cooperation with the Israeli Fund for UNICEF.
The aim of Children's Rights Trustees is to develop youth leadership groups in cities across Israel. The role of the groups is to raise awareness of the subject of children's and youth's rights and to work to implement these rights in schools, in cities and amongst the general public.
Violence against children is everywhere. But people turn a blind eye. It’s hidden behind closed doors. It’s invisible. All children have the right to live free from violence. Violence which harms their physical and mental growth. Violence which holds back every society. But violence against children is entirely preventable when people come together and say that it is not acceptable. When they make the invisible visible.
Join the global movement to #EndViolence against children.
#EndViolence
