Reflections on UNICEF’s 70th anniversary

Reflections on UNICEF’s 70^th anniversary

Maggie Black, Oxford, 1^st December 2016

Thirty years ago, at the event to commemorate UNICEF’s 40^th anniversary in December 1986, I sat behind a stall in the ground-floor concourse in the UN Secretariat building in New York.

On this stall was the book I had written on UNICEF’s history, in which a huge amount of organizational and people’s efforts, and a vast array of research and interview material had been invested. The Children and the Nations was ‘The Story of UNICEF’ as we proudly proclaimed. Everyone rushed past, on their way to the festivities, and some stopped and bought a copy. I think we charged $10.

One of the people who may well have come by was Baquer Namazi. He joined UNICEF headquarters in 1984. At that moment, I was already sequestered in my apartment, writing against the clock. So his was not a figure very familiar to me, but I have a glimpse in my mind of his distinguished good looks, his smile, his air of integrity and bonhomie. We were so used to having colleagues with amazing backgrounds, committed track records and interesting points of view, that he was just one of the regular UNICEF crowd.

But in a particular way, he was not one of the crowd. How could we have pictured then that any UNICEF professional – dedicated, occasionally passionate, trying always to look for the way through, the crack in the political, or economic, discourse that allows the child to be considered – could end up in jail, accused of doing just this kind of thing, and somehow therefore of hostility towards his country of origin?

We were used in those days to controversial ideas such as ‘children as a zone of peace’, ‘days of tranquillity for child immunization’ or ‘the child above the political divide’. But the idea of being penalized, even to incarceration, and at 80 years of age being given a sentence of ten years in prison for advocating such views, was then, and is now, beyond comprehension.

Since that day in December 1986, I have written many historical portrayals of the ideas of humanity and compassion that have driven forward the international mission for relief of distress and improvement of social well-being in underprivileged societies. Did we understand adequately the wide diversity of culture and belief that framed the notion of ‘progress’ in different economic or political terms? Was there too facile an assumption that ‘one size fits all’ where social improvement is concerned? Perhaps we made mistakes. But that does not diminish the dedication most servants of UNICEF brought to their vocation. It does not justify the persecution of one of our number, who only ever tried to give his best for children’s rights to survival, healthy growth, and a better life, in dignity and self-respect.

There are many things to celebrate for UNICEF’s 70^th year. The extraordinary survival of what was originally called the ‘UN International Children’s Emergency Fund’ and expected to end its life in 1950, is just the beginning of them. But let us also remember our martyrs. People who died in the service of children while working for UNICEF in difficult duty stations, in civil wars, in convoys ambushed by rebels, in the line of duty. And also let us remember Baquer Namazi, who will – inexplicably – spend UNICEF’s 70^th birthday in jail.

I salute UNICEF. And at the same time I feel that all the articles and books I have written about social progress and child well-being can go for nothing if I could only write something that would get Baquer released, to go home and enjoy his well-deserved retirement with his family.