Somalia to join global treaty, says Unicef

Somalia has announced it plans to ratify a global treaty aimed at protecting children, leaving the US as the only country outside the pact, Unicef said yesterday.Somalia and the US have long been the last hold-outs to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.The most widely ratified international human rights treaty, it declares that those under 18 years old must be protected from violence, exploitation, discrimination and neglect.“Adherence to and application of the Convention will be of crucial importance for the children of Somalia, who are gravely affected by the ongoing conflict, recurrent natural disasters and chronic poverty,” the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) said in a statement.In 2002, Somalia’s previous transitional government signed the Convention, which the US also signed under president Bill Clinton in 1995, but neither has ratified it.Unicef said Somalia’s transitional government had told it the “Somali cabinet of ministers has agreed in principle to ratify the Convention on the rights of the Child”.