- ATD Fourth World

"In this third millennium, let no child be abandoned to hunger and ignorance, excluded from the feast, regardless of their sex, language or religion. Each child embodies the future of our human race." Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2008, in an excerpt from his speech before the Nobel Academy, on 7th November 2008

We often read and hear that the consequences of the economic and financial crisis threatening the world are now and will in the future be heaviest for people already living in situations of vulnerability, extreme poverty and exclusion. History is littered with these key moments when people collectively realise that those most seriously affected by disasters – regardless of their cause – will be the most underprivileged. Has this awareness therefore radically transformed the bonds that people create between each other?

The twentieth anniversary of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child should be an opportunity to take stock of the transformations brought about thanks to the commitment of the everyday artisans of the Convention, who are active at many levels, and to rediscover with them what it means to build a common humanity.

Some of these people are correspondents of the Permanent Forum. They tell us about the real lives of children with no legal existence, street children, children not attending school, working children, children called "sorcerers", exploited children, beggar children, children in prison, children excluded for all kinds of reasons. They do not isolate these children from their parents or their community. They bring to light their many complex situations, and make them the starting point for their action. They highlight the potential and the acts of resistance of both children and adults, including those who are completely excluded.

Through their creativity they seek to enable all children to remain with their family, to attend school, to express their artistic talents, to participate in play activities, using any means no matter how small. They set up learning schemes, and organise meetings between children with different backgrounds.

So, wherever they are based, with the possibilities available to them, driven by the conviction that poverty is not inevitable, Permanent Forum correspondents are in action and are mobilising others too, to eradicate it. From their point of view, the aim is not just to relieve or reduce poverty but to totally eradicate it. Through their daily commitment working with very underprivileged children and families, they pinpoint the fundamental changes that implementation of the Convention must bring about for all children, without exception.

Haven’t there always been people (and more recently associations) who within their community have risen up to unite and take action with the victims of hunger, ignorance and violence? No doubt. What is new, and certainly a source of hope, is a worldwide movement that is emerging and becoming more visible, a movement made up of lots of small currents; currents that are sometimes peaceful and gentle, and others that are turbulent and chaotic, but all drawing their inspiration from the recognition that every human being has the right to live in dignity and to be an integral part of our human community.

Huguette Redegeld Vice President

Illustrations by Hélène Perdereau.