Cinar Films, the National Film Board, The Cartoon Network, Hanna-Barbera, Nickelodeon, Walt Disney and Warner Bros. Feature Animation are among 60 companies from over 25 countries lined up by unicef to produce 30-second animated public service announcements as part of its first International Animation Consortium for child rights.

The global campaign aims to inform tv viewers about children’s rights through an animated medium. unicef is using mip-tv to seek out broadcasters willing to work the entire 100-spot campaign into their schedules.

Also being launched at Cannes is a 13-part tv series being developed by unicef and tvo/tfo. Generation 2000 will detail the problems children are facing all over the world, with episodes on war, child labor, prostitution, the environment and health. The $100,000 series is being launched for presales at mip. tfo’s creative head of children and training, Andre Champagne, is producing the program from unicef stock footage for completion this fall.

Together with Eagle Vision and Triumph Entertainment, unicef is also looking for broadcast partners and development funds for a new 26-part tv series based on the book Children just like me, published by Dorling Kindersley. Geared at promoting greater cultural understanding, the series follows the daily lives of children in different countries.