Join UNICEF Ambassadors and World Renowned Photographers to Make a Photo-Pledge for Children's Rights

Sony World Photography Awards and UNICEF Mark the 20th Anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)

LONDON, November 20 - The World Photography Organisation and UNICEF are launching a
global initiative to raise awareness of children's rights and mark the 20th
anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
(UNCRC) on 20 November 2009.

Together, the World Photography Organisation and UNICEF,
supported by Sony, are calling on people around the world to pledge one
photo, accompanied by a written pledge, portraying one of the five
fundamental children's rights:

    - The right to survival;
    - to education;
    - to health;
    - to protection from harm, abuse and exploitation;
    - and to be heard

World renowned photographers Reza, Mary Ellen Mark, Bruce
Davidson, Carol Allen Storey and Jonathan Torgovnik have already made
photo-pledges along with celebrity UNICEF Ambassadors including David
Beckham, Jemima Khan and Ewan McGregor who have pledged powerful images
personally chosen from field-trips they have taken as part of their role.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) was adopted by
the UN General Assembly on 20th November 1989 and established a set of
fundamental rights for all children and young people that protect them
against violence, discrimination and harm. Today, the CRC has been signed by
almost every single country, making it the most widely ratified human rights
agreement in the world.

Great progress has been made in the past 20 years, including
improvements to under-five child mortality and falling numbers of children
working in hazardous labour. However, major challenges remain. Between 500
million and 1.5 billion children experience violence annually; 150 million
children aged between five and 14 are engaged in child labour and more than 1
million children are detained through justice systems around the world at any
one time.

Astrid Merget, Creative Director, World Photography
Organisation said: " The World Photography Organisation is privileged to work
with UNICEF on this initiative which aims to use the powerful medium of
photography to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). We consider it our obligation
to use the powerful tool of photography to communicate important global
issues each year and are fortunate to be joined in this effort by so many
amazing supporters ".

Ellen Tolmie, Senior Photography Edtior, UNICEF said: "UNICEF
is thrilled that the Convention of the Rights of the Child has been chosen by
the World Photography Awards this year as the focus of its annual campaign.
Inviting young people from around the world to participate offers an
opportunity for children's visual expressions to be seen internationally.
Additionally there is a possibility of winning participation in a photography
workshop with their peers in a developing country."

Everyone has a shared responsibility to uphold the values and
promises made to children in the CRC. Amateur and professional photographers
can show their support by making photo-pledges via
www.worldphotographyawards.org where they will receive details of how
to enter. All photo-pledges will form a special online exhibition showcased
on the World Photography Awards website. Selected images will also be
exhibited alongside the UNICEF Ambassadors' images and those taken by World
Photography Academy Members at the annual Sony World Photography Awards
Festival in Cannes, April 2010. These images will then go on a global tour
with the awards' touring exhibition. Everyone who submits a photo will
receive emails suggesting actions they can take to change the policies and
practices that deny children their rights.

Notes to Editors

Youth Category

Additionally, in a special Youth Category judged by the
supporting World Photography Academy Members, six photo-pledge winners, aged
12-18 years, will receive a day of mentoring with a professional photographer
in Cannes, April 2010, when they travel there for the Awards presentation.
Later in 2010, the six young photographers will travel on a
once-in-a-lifetime EYE SEE photographic workshop to Ethiopia. EYE SEE is a
photo-project that gives children all over the world training so they may
learn photographic skills. EYE SEE is supported by Sony Corporation and the
Japan Committee for UNICEF and the goal of its workshop in Ethiopia is to
teach children photography techniques and provide them with a fun, compelling
tool with which to capture the images of their lives.

About EYE SEE

EYE SEE is a digital photography project that encourages young
people in developing countries to take photographs of social issues in their
day-to-day lives. The aim of the project is to provide an exciting
opportunity for the youth to tell their stories and express their world
through images captured with photography; to inspire the youth to learn about
the social issues that they will be the key to solving them in the future;
and help people around the world better understand the issues faced by these
youth and their communities. EYE SEE is supported by Sony Corporation and the
Japan Committee for UNICEF.

Press access to photo and written pledges

Written pledges and accompanying photographs from World
Photography Academy Members Bruce Davidson, Mary Ellen Mark, Reza, Jonathan
Torgovnik and Carol Allen Storey plus UNICEF Ambassadors David Beckham, Jamie
Cullum, Cat Deeley, Jemima Khan, Ewan McGregor and James Nesbitt are
available for press use.

All images and written pledges are embargoed until 00.01
(GMT), Friday 20 November 2009. To download images, written pledges and the
press release please go to: www.worldphotographyawards.org/press.aspx
Scroll to the bottom of the page to SWPA image downloads and enter password:
wpapress

Written and photographic pledges include:

David Beckham

David Beckham pledged: "I have chosen this image to pledge my
support for children's rights. It shows a woman in a feeding centre I visited
in Sierra Leone with UNICEF. She was holding her toddler close to her and you
can see she just looks so worried. The child was malnourished and the woman
had a cup of special, fortified milk to help the child regain its strength.
The UNICEF-supported centre is the only one in the northern part of Sierra
Leone, which means thousands of children still can't get the health care they
need. Every child has the right to be healthy. We can't turn a blind eye to
the tens of thousands of young children who die every day in the developing
world, mostly from causes that are preventable .I pledge my make support to
fulfil children's rights. Please do the same if you can. Thank you."

Mary Ellen Mark

Mary Ellen Mark pledged: "Every child has the right to a home"
and said: "I first met Jesse Damm in 1987 when he was a little boy-only
4-years-old. He was homeless. He lived in shelters and sometimes he lived
with his entire family (and their pit bull) in a car. He was extremely
stressed and he cried a lot.

"This photograph of Jesse was taken in 1994 on the roadside in
Llano, California three hours outside of Los Angeles. At that time, Jesse,
his sisters Chrissy, Summer & Ashley, his mother Linda, and his step-father
Dean were again homeless. They were squatting in a deserted ranch in a
canyon. Eventually, his abusive step-father left and his mother remarried and
the family found a home. But, Jesse never recovered from the horrible
insecurity and stress of his childhood.

"As he grew, he spent many years drifting around and although
he stayed out of trouble with the police, he was just surviving and always on
the edge. One night, while defending his sister from her ex-boyfriend, Jesse
somehow got a hold of a gun and shot and killed the ex-boyfriend. He plead
guilty and is now serving a 9-year-sentence. When I contacted him last
Christmas to see if I could send him anything, he said all he wanted was a
photograph".

Ewan McGregor

Ewan McGregor pledged: "This is my pledge photo to support
children's rights. It tells a story. These children are orphaned and
vulnerable children in a community based childcare centre in Malawi. They are
flat out asleep having an afternoon nap in a centre that's been set up to
provide them with a meal, toys and childcare and a time and place to be
children. It looks basic. It is. But the centre is helping give these
children their rights - care, support, education and more. I pledge my
absolute support for children's rights. I hope you'll do the same".

Reza

Reza pledged: "Every child has the right to a childhood" and
quoted the following poem:

I said what about my eyes?

Keep them on the road.

I said what about my passion?

Keep it burning.

I said what about my heart?

Tell me what you hold inside it.

I said pain and sorrow.

He said. Stay with it.

Rumi (1207-1273)

    Media enquiries

    Rachel Duffield / Jill Cotton
    Colman Getty on behalf of the World Photography Organisation
    Tel: +44-(0)20-7631-2666
    Email: rachel@colmangetty.co.uk / jill@colmangetty.co.uk

Media enquiries: Rachel Duffield / Jill Cotton, Colman Getty on behalf of the World Photography Organisation, Tel: +44-(0)20-7631-2666, Email: rachel at colmangetty.co.uk / jill at colmangetty.co.uk