The Rights of the Child – how far have we come?
Mobilising to mark the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child
Today children have got together in their thousands to celebrate this anniversary, via Tapori, an international children’s friendship movement. Tapori calls upon children to publically explain everything that they are doing to create a better world in their immediate surroundings. Thus, this year’s main theme is “If we get together we can build a new world”, a journey which some children have already embarked on through the story of the “Friendship Train”.
For ATD Fourth World, the 20th anniversary of the international Convention on the Rights of the Child opens up a fresh opportunity for in-depth public debate on the question of the future of children. It allows us to tackle this issue together with children and their parents, taking their voices as our point of departure. It is a matter of drawing public attention to the violation of the rights of children living in extreme poverty and, above all, to the actions and initiatives being undertaken to ensure that the rights of these children, including their right to live in a family, are respected.
ATD is doing all it can to promote the communication of children and their parents of all the efforts they make daily to ensure that the rights described in the Convention become a reality for all.
A brief summary of rights under threat today
The struggle for the rights of the child is far from finished. Today there is still a need to fight for:
The right to live in a family – a fundamental human right. Actions aimed at eradicating child poverty must support the efforts of parents to build a better future for their children, and, as such, should also work to overcome the poverty in which parents live. Families living in extreme poverty in particular insist on their right to live together as a family, recognising that their poverty prevents them from carrying out all of their responsibilities without assistance. Many such families do not have the means to pay for their children’s education, to provide them with adequate food and nutrition or even to give them access to medical treatment when needed. This right is also often violated by enforced sterilisation, the sale of children or their release for adoption without appropriate consent.
We conclude with the following message to adults, inspired by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child:
“When we listen to a child we understand how much he/she deserves to be listened to. When we respect the opinion of a child, we understand the value of what he/she thinks. When we believe that a child is able to make a great contribution to society then we look for a way to help him/her. When we provide a child with a warm environment in which to develop, he/she acquires high self-esteem. When we respect a child, we become bigger people ourselves.”
