fd has been proclaimed the
a the muational Year of the Child by
| '%€ United Nations. The aim is to
ae government and public at-.
na | eae to the condition of chil-
_| “tenboth in the developing and in
Hl find Y developed countries and to
|... Ways of giving them prompt
| ®ssistance wherever necessary.
eed, in the world today al-

_ chool age cannot study, 43 mil-
| (2 minors work in conditions of
ls tal expigitation, and 200 mil-
“9n children go huntry.

Mane principles of the Decla-

Sdopted by the UN twenty years
one and in particular to its main
eo “‘Mankind owes to the
| “alld the best it has to give.”
= As regards the Soviet state, the
eee “‘everything best for the
| Shildren’”? began to be applied
* ae after the victory of the Oc-
ne” Socialist revolution of 1917.
ol peaabeg the material pos-

epare with what the USSR has
ea But both 60 years ago and
y ay children in the Soviet
. Rion were and remain to be the
| nly privileged class.
Ey child attitude of society to the
» which has taken shape
Under Socialism, is reflected in the
~Snstitution of the USSR. If one
Compares its articles with the De-
Claration of the Rights of the
Child, it will be clear that the
Bee pe socumient of the UN
‘ound full embodiment in the
| Fundamental Law of the Soviet
4 tion eae
| __ The child shall be protected
_-28ainst all forms of . . . cruelty and
**Ploitation,” reads the Declara-
4on. In‘ the Soviet state. child
a T was banned by a govern-
x Nt decree on the fifth day of the
pvolution’s victory. Naturally,
8 law, which is in force to this
Y, is reflected in the Consti-
tepals of the USSR (Article 42).
Special care and protection’’,
mee the Declaration,. shall be
fOvided both to the child and to

-P€cial social service for mothers
4nd children. It includes 22,500
"Yomen’s consultation clinics,
ldren’s polyclinics and out-
1€nt departments, hospitals,
tuntoriums, and research insti-
4 ©S. The child mortality rate
during the Soviet years dropped

S$. =

0.

i Declaration also proclaims
D can. the child is entitled to re-
| lve education, which shall be
ae and compulsory, at least in
© clementary stages.” And ac-
eenely Article 45 of the Con-
“tution of the USSR speaks of

\

ees Gee es

Most 260 million children of.

|, Allthis runs counter to the
_ Tation of the Rights of the Child .

lities of those days in no way

Mother. Inthe USSR there isa age

Palaces of culture for young people to dev
by the government and trade unions.

For Soviet children in IYC

“Everything for t

i Year
of the Child 1979

free provision of all forms of edu-
cation, the institution of univer-
sal, compulsory secondary
education for youth, and broad
development of specialized sec-
ondary and higher education.
“It is in the USSR that all the 10
principles of the Declaration of
the Child are most fully im-
plemented. The Soviet people,
their government and all public
organizations of the country are
committed to the cause of chil-
dren’s happiness, to the cause of
peace,’ said Freda Brown,

‘President of the Women’s Inter-
national Democratic Federation —

and Chairwoman of the. inter-
national preparatory committee
of the forthcoming world con-
ference ‘“‘For a. peaceful and
happy future of all children’
(which will be held in Moscow in
September 1979).

Certainly, Soviet people were —

pleased to hear that opinion from
the authoritative representative

of the international women’s -

movement. But it is also realized
in the USSR that the achieve-
ments in that field are far from the
limit, because the ‘‘everything
best for the children’ principle
has in practice no bounds.

We are also well aware of our
current problems. Regrettably,
the laws on protecting female
labor are still sometimes violated,
which may have adverse affects
on the health of mother and child.
Although daycare centres in the
USSR cater for more than 13-mil-
lion children, there is still a short-
of them in some places.
Psychological advice for young
families is inadequate. The state,
while helping the family to bring
up children, also sets greater de-
mands on the quality of educa-
tion.

Proof of Soviet society’s in-
terest in an early resolution of
these problems is provided by the
fact that both chambers of the
Supreme Soviet of the USSR
have special commissions con-
cerned with work and every-day
life of women and with protection
of mothers and children. I often
saw deputies at joint sittings of

artistic talents are —

oot dae

he child’

these commissions take deter-
mined measures to speed up the

construction of children’s pre-

school institutions on a national
scale, analyze the observance of

the legislation on protection of |
¥

female labor in agriculture, etc.
Not so long ago, on recom-
mendations of these com-
missions, the list of trades and
jobs with difficult and arduous
cohditions where women are not
permitted was considerably

: extended.

This concern for mothers and
children is, in the opinion of
Soviet citizens, only natural.
“‘Children’’, said USSR leader
Leonid Brezhnev, ‘‘are our future
and they will have to continue the

- work of their fathers and mothers.

They ... will make life on earth
better and happier.”’

__ International focus

What kind of company
will Canada keep?

The issue of Jerusalem came
up in this election campaign
when the Tories made it an
issue — promising to move
Canada’s embassy there if
elected. The statement
brought immediate sharp re-
sponses from the Arab com-
munity here:

violation of our basic rights,”
charged the Arab Information
Centre. ‘‘A cheap and
irresponsible way of gaining
votes,’ said the Arab-
Palestine Association of To-
ronto.

The Arab-Canada Chamber
of Commerce added that
“such a statement by a leader
of a major Canadian party has
damaged the Canadian interest
beyond repair ...’’ At present,
Canada’s embassy is in Tel
Aviv, as are the embassies of
most major states that recog-
nize Israel. -

In 1947 the United Nations
Special Commission on Pales-
tine recommended partition of
the city and proposed it be
placed under an international
regime. The UN General As-
sembly accepted this, and from
1948 until the six-day war in
1967, the eastern section was
under Jordanian control.

Israeli ‘‘unification’’ arising

viewed by the Arab people as
another Israeli provocation
and no amount of justification
can change this. Jerusalem's
future, therefore, will only be

overall settlement of the Pales-
tinian question.

Israel in the 12 years since
1967 has met with little success
in convincing other states to
side with it over Jerusalem.

_ The Israel Information Centre
~ in Toronto has provided a list
of countries which today have
their embassies there and that
list is revealing. They are:
Bolivia, Chile, Colombia,
Costa Rica, Dominican Repub-
lic, Ecuador, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Haiti, Nether-

Vénezuela.
Among this group are to be
found some of the worst re-

“Clearly anti-Arab and a

out of military occupation is —

settled and made secure in an —

lands, Panama, Uruguay and.

i

}

j

i

t
Pe
i

PHOTOS — TASS

sake

_ Camps inthe country, funded by trade unions and the government are

available for Soviet children to spend their holidays.

gimes on earth today. Several

are open fascist dictatorships,

others military juntas and still”
others semi-colonies. Joe

Clark’s election promise will

place Canada squarely in this

bunch.

Stats on how most

of this world lives. :

Connections, a paper pub-
lished bi-monthly by the Ryer-
son Third World Centre in To-
ronto, gives the following

_ global comparisons between
countries: - :

e Three-fourths of the
world population living in the
third world earn only one-fifth
_ of total world income. North

America has a per capita in-

come 30 times the average for

-Asia, and Canada’s per capita
“income of $7,500 compares
with $200 Sri Lanka.

e Subsistence agriculture,
not commercial farming is a
source of livelihood for two-
thirds of the work force.in Asia
and Africa and two-fifths in

‘Latin America. This compares
with 4% engaged in commer-

cial farming in North America. .

e One-half the adult popula-
tion is illiterate and one-third of
primary school children are
without schools. -

e One-quarter of the popu-
lation is undernourished and
disease-prone compared to 3%
in developed countries.

e Life expectancy at birth is
on average 53 years compared

_ to 72 in developed countries.

e The infant mortality rate
is 104 per 1,000 live births
compared to 17 in developed
countries. —

And where will
_ the Shah go next?

Iran’s revolutionary court
May 13 sentenced the Shah
and several other members of
his family to death in absentia.
Accused of responsibility in
the deaths of thousands of his
countrymen and of stealing bil-
lions from Iran’s treasury, the
Shah is currently on Paradise -
Island in the Bahamas.

There he plays terinis (has
developed a blister), swims,
and is constantly surrounded
by armed bodyguards. ~
Perched off the coast of the.

ONE EA ee eg

United States as he is, the Shah
is obviously biding his time. —

He has hired a PR firm,
Stuart Porter Agency, to polish
up his image and look after his .
affairs. His bodyguards are
Iranians and hired Wackenhut
cops. é :

It may be recalled that the
Shah was overthrown in 1953
and brought back to power
with the CIA’s help. No doubt.
he must be thinking: ‘“Why not
again?”’

‘Meanwhile, Costa Rica has

offered him (and Nicaraguan |

president Somoza) asylum.
Egypt starts to
feel boycott’s pinch

Cairo is beginning to feel the
pinch of the boycott imposed
against it by the Arab states.

Politically, 18 of the 22 states
have honored the boycott im-

- posed after Sadat’s unilateral

‘‘peace”’ with Israel with only
Oman F Sudan and Somalia not

" participating

Saudi Arabia has threatened

‘to back away on its promise

last year to bankroll the pur-
chase of F-5 fighter planes cost-

ing $525-million; Kuwait and—

Saudi Arabia may withdraw
their $1.6-billion in petro dol-
lars from Egypt’s banks; The

- Gulf Organization for the

Development of Egypt, which
plowed $1.7-billion into the

country in 1978, has stopped

all pending projects; Some
16,000 Egyptian jobs may be
lost as the Arab Organization
for Industrialization has stop-
ped operations in Egypt; The
Organization of Arab Pet-
roleum Exporting Countries
suspended Egypt; The Arab
Civil Aviation Council voted to
suspend all flights to Egypt and
to deny Arab airspace to Egypt
Air, the country’s national air-

Egypt, therefore, is now
forced to turn to the carrot that

the United States dangled —

$3-billion in ‘‘aid’’ — its payoff

for signing the agreement with _

Israel. Israel has responded
saying it would ‘‘like to help
Egypt” face the boycott. But

_this may be a hollow promise,

faced as Israel is with a mas-
sive military budget, a $16.5-
billion foreign debt and 60%
inflation. — :

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 1, 1979— Page 7