World Children’s Day 2024: “Children’s Rights are Human Rights”
Blog by ECPC member Dr. Maria Pia Belloni Mignatti
World Children’s Day, established in 1954 and celebrated annually on November 20th, marks the day on which the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989.
This Day is a call to action to make sure that every child, starting with the youngest ones, has the opportunity to grow up healthy, in a safe and nurturing environment. Even though the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has been widely ratified (the United States is the only country that has not ratified the CRC, though it has signed protocols within the Convention), children continue to be disproportionately affected by conflict, family separation, detention, poverty, natural disasters, displacement, and other violations of human rights.
[Learn more: World Children’s Day | United Nations]
The gap between legal protection and actual implementation is evident.
The constant violation of children’s rights harm their short and long-term health and wellbeing impacting our communities as well as societies at large, not to mention children who die or disappear in a migration journey or are killed by smugglers or traffickers or drowned at sea.
The Subcommittee on Children in Migration of the NGO Committee on Migration is convinced that there is no better time than now to unite our strengths to erect the building blocks of a better future for every child.
The passionate voices in this video set humanitarian expectations for how our society should respect and care for children.
When asked to explain their feelings in delivering such an important message, Guyal (9 years old) said: “I feel good because it is helping kids”.
Olaus (6 years old) explained: “Children need help to stand and grow up. Everyone must respect children.”
We encourage everyone to share this video; we call on strong partnership to contrast the normative pushback against child rights, taking place globally.
There is no time to waste.
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To learn more about our initiative to protect children in humanitarian settings visit: UN, NGO CoM Resource List (RL), or contact Jess Essary, jessary@fgcu.edu
Gratitude to Arceni Ventures for creating the video clip. See them on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/arceni
About
Dr. Maria Pia Belloni Mignatti holds a master’s degree in political science, cum laude, from the University of Pavia (Italy) and a Diploma of Advanced European Studies from the College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium. She is a retired Professor of European Union Law, Faculty of Political Science, at the University of Pavia (Italy).
Positions held by Dr. Mignatti include Former Chair, NGO Committee on Migration; UN Representative, World Organization for Early Childhood Education (OMEP), Member of the Steering Committee “Initiative for Child Rights in the Global Compacts”, Geneva, Switzerland; and Member of the Advisory Group of the Early Childhood Development Peace Consortium (ECPC).
Dr. Mignatti has published books and articles on different aspects of the European Union integration, mainly about migration policy. Learn more.
About the Early Childhood Peace Consortium (ECPC)
Where all children are the stars of today and leaders of tomorrow!
The ECPC is a global movement of United Nations agencies, Non-Governmental Organizations, academia, practitioners, and the private sector focused on sharing scientific and practice-based evidence on how investment in early childhood development (ECD) can contribute to sustainable peace, social cohesion, and social justice. We recognize that investing in ECD is a powerful and cost-effective strategy for reducing violence, poverty, and exclusion and for building peaceful societies.
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