Declaration affirming commitment to immunization of all the world's children by 1990 signed at headquarters.

Declaration affirming commitment to immunization of all the world's children by 1990 signed at Headquarters

Ordinary citizens joined Heads of State and Government, ambassadors and United Nations officials at United Nations Headquarters on 25 October to sign a declaration affirming their commitment to immunization for all children throughout the world by 1990. The event was sponsored by the United Nations Children's Fund and by the Non-Governmental Organization Committee on UNICEF.

The goal of the immunization campaign is the protection of all children from the six most common and dangerous childhood diseases--measles, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), diphtheria, poliomyelitis and tuberculosis.

Among the signatories were President Spyros Kyprianou of Cyprus, Yugoslavia's President Radovan Vlajkovic, Canada's Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa, Sweden's Prima Minister Olof Palme and Turkey's Prime Minister Turgut Ozal. General Assembly President Jaime de Pinies and Secretary-General Perez de Cuellar also signed.

Dr. Bernard Lown, co-winner of the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize, signed on behalf of the 140,000 members of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.

Nearly 1,000 people attended the meeting, at which American actor Joel Grey read the declaration. It said in part "We the people of the United Nations (are) determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of preventable disease which today claim the lives of 3.5 million children each year and permanently disable 3.5 million more'.

Mr. Perez de Cuellar said that to allow the present heavy toll of death and disability from disease among children was an "offence to human conscience'.

UNICEF Executive Director James P. Grant likened the death of 120,000 children every 72 hours from malnutrition, infection and diarrhoeal disease to that of experiencing one Hiroshima atomic blast every three days. Regarding the meeting, he said "Never before . . . has there been such a gathering--of the "the great' who lead our nations, and "the also great' who are the citizens of our nations--all assembled to pledge their commitment to achieving so simple yet monumental a task: to protect all the world's children against six preventable diseases.'

Photo: A child in Turkey is vaccinated.