(MENAFN- Pajhwok Afghan News) KABUL ok): Efforts have been made to improve living standard of children inAfghanistan 
, but more work is needed in this regard by Afghan authorities with support of the international community.
These remarks were made during a gathering called 'Afghan Children Deserve Better Future' here, in which government officials, European Union (EU) and the United Nations representatives were present.
EU Ambassador Pierre Mayaudon on the occasion said the purpose of the dialogue was to how and through which way effective work could be done to improve the lives of children.
'Children in Afghanistan live in difficult conditions, one-third of civilian casualties form children, 3.7 million children are deprived ofeducation and one third of girls get married before they reach the legal age,' he remarked.
'Looking at the deteriorated condition of children in Afghanistan, the Afghan government and the international community should chalk out a plan through which the condition of children in Afghanistan could be improved,' said Mayaudon.
Toby Lanzer, UN special representative's assistant, expressed his concern over the deteriorated condition of children in Afghanistan and said: 'Afghanistan is a country in theworld where the level of children fatality is higher.'
He said illiteracy rate in Afghanistan had declined, but still 3.7 million children were out of school. Last year, duringWolesi Jirga elections, 536 attacks happened on schools, which created problems for education sector in the country, he added.
Razia Saeedi, member of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), said poverty, insecurity, unemployment, unplanned increase in population and some other social issues caused the lack of attention to children's rights in Afghanistan.
She acknowledged necessary legislation had been made to ensure improvement in children lives but these laws could not be implemented.
Naheed Farid, member of theWomen and Human Rights Commission in Wolesi Jirga, said there was no specific authority that could address problems faced by children.
She said 38 percent children were deprived of education, 17 percent lacked access to vaccination, out of 18 million children, 6.5 million children faced economic problems and currently 60,000 children in Kabul were busy in hard labour.
She asked the government and international community to jointly work and make effective panning to improve children living in Afghanistan.
Anwar Saadat, minister for work and social affairs, said six million children in Afghanistan were vulnerable, three million of them were seriously vulnerable. He, however, said a reasonable legal framework had been chalked out to improve children lives in Afghanistan.
He said a law defending children rights has been endorsed and children support policy is being amended with other efforts underway to improve children lives in the country.
He said currently, children rights defending networks are active nation-wide while 10,000 children facing threats are being brought up in government facilities.
Saadat added insecurity, poverty and other types of threats endangered children living in Afghanistan and urged more support from the international community.
Nh/ma
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