減少兒童災禍風險公約

Child activists attending a Conference on Global Disaster Risk Reduction are urging governments to endorse an action plan to minimize the impacts of natural disasters on their lives. More than 600 children in 21 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America were consulted by child advocacy organizations in the development of the so-called Children’s Charter for Disaster Risk Reduction, which will be presented to those taking part in the conference.

在日內瓦舉行的“全球減少災害風險會議”上，熱心兒童問題的人士呼籲各國政府，支持一項將威脅兒童生命安全的自然災害降到最低限度的行動計劃。促進兒童福利的組織在推動“減少兒童災難風險契約”的運動中，諮詢了非洲，亞洲和拉丁美洲21個國家裏的600多名兒童。這項契約將遞交與會者。

The aim of the charter is to raise awareness about the need to put children at the heart of disaster risk reduction as they are among those who suffer most from catastrophic events.

這項契約的目標是讓人們認識到，需要把兒童置於減輕災難風險的中心地位。因爲兒童是在災難性事件中受害最嚴重的羣體之一。

The statistics are grim. The United Nations reports about half of all people affected or killed by disasters are children. It estimates 175 million children are likely to be affected by climate-related disasters each year. And this number probably will rise as the frequency and intensity of natural disasters increases.

有關這方面的數據令人十分擔憂。根據聯合國的報告，受災難影響或者在災難中死亡的人中，一半是兒童。聯合國估計，每年都有大約一億七千五百萬兒童在與氣候有關的災害中很可能受到影響。而且，隨着自然災害日益頻繁和更加強烈，這個數字可能還會增加。

Goodwill Ambassador for the U.N. Children’s Fund Agnes Chang was in Tokyo when the earthquake and tsunami struck the northeastern coast of Japan on March 11.

今年3月11日，當日本東北海岸受到地震和海嘯侵襲的時候，聯合國兒童基金會的親善大使陳美齡正在東京。

She says in the three worst affected prefectures - Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate - 378 children died, and 191 went missing. She says most children survived because the tsunami struck when they were at school.

她說，日本福島、宮城和巖手這三個受災害影響最嚴重的縣中，共有378名兒童死亡，191人失蹤。她說，大部分兒童之所以倖存下來，是因爲海嘯襲來時，他們還在學校。

“But how come these children are saved. How did they survive? I think there are two reasons," Chang said. "One is because of the safe school structure. And the second reason is because of the preparedness of the school. The schools are well-prepared. Manuals are provided to educators on the basis of preparedness, and regular drills are compulsory. Disaster-appropriate drills are done regularly at school, at all schools, all over Japan.”

陳美齡說，“這些孩子是怎麼獲救的？他們怎麼倖存下來的？我想有兩個原因。第一是學校的建築結構安全，第二是因爲學校的防備工作。學校都做好完善的準備。他們向教職員工發放有關防備災害的手冊，並且必須要進行定期演練。日本的學校，所有的學校，日本所有的學校都必須定期做預防災害演習。”Relatively few children died in Japan because of preparedness. Compare this with the 2008 Szechuan earthquake, which killed more than 9,000 children. These deaths are blamed on the shoddy construction of the schools in the region.

由於準備工作妥當，日本兒童在災難中的死亡人數相對很少。而與2008年的四川大地震相比，那次地震有超過九千名兒童死亡。人們將那些孩子的遇難，歸咎於當地學校的豆腐渣工程。

Tricia, a young activist, comes from a disaster-prone country. The Philippines is subject to typhoons, earthquakes, storm surges, landslides, flash floods and other disasters. She has seen the destruction and suffering resulting from such catastrophic events.

特里西亞是一名與會的年輕女孩，來自一個多災難的國家菲律賓。菲律賓經常發生颱風、地震、暴風雨，泥石流，山洪爆發和其它災害。她親眼目睹，也親身體驗過這些災難帶來的破壞。

She tells representatives attending a special roundtable on Children for Resilience that children can do a great deal to reduce risks and save lives.

特里西亞在一次有關兒童災後恢復工作的圓桌會議上，告訴與會的代表們，孩子在減少風險、挽救生命方面，能做很多事。

“Disaster reduction education is important since it raises the awareness to children and children could play a very big role in disaster risk reduction…The children must have the knowledge on what to do and how to respond to these disasters," Tricia said. "We play a very big role for the future and we have opinions that we feel should be heard. I believe, too, that we can do so much more than the adults can. So I hope all the people here today will prioritize and help the children and sign the Children’s Charter pledge for the children.”

她說，“減輕災害的教育是非常重要的，因爲它能提高兒童的認識。同時，孩子們可以在減輕災害任務中扮演非常重要的角色。孩子們必須懂得該做什麼以及如何對這些災難做出反應。我們爲將來要擔負重任，因此我們的意見也必須受到注意。我也相信，我們能做的比大人還多。因此，我希望所有今天在場的人，都會將這件事列爲當務之急，幫助兒童，在這項減少兒童災難風險契約上簽名，爲孩子們做出承諾。”

The main points of the Charter include the need to make schools safe; to protect children before, during and after a disaster; to give children the information they need; to build safe infrastructure; and to make sure disaster risk reduction reaches the most vulnerable people.

這項契約的要點包括需要加強校內安全，制定災難發生前後及發生期間對兒童的保護措施，向兒童提供他們需要的信息，建立安全基礎設施，以及確保使那些最容易受到災害打擊的人們減低災難風險。