World Children's Day 2020

Since it was established in 1954, people, governments and businesses have celebrated World Children’s Day on 20 November each year. It is a day to commemorate and promote ‘The Convention on the Rights of the Child’ (CRC); to raise awareness and engage in issues related to improving children’s welfare. On World Children’s Day, 20 November 1989, The United Nations General Assembly adopted the CRC, and to date the convention has been ratified by 196 countries – all except for one.

But why do we need children’s rights? We have the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, are children not humans too? Yes, children are humans and enjoy the rights set forth in the Universal Declaration established in 1948, but children are vulnerable and, although most of the time under adult supervision, have special requirements. All people under the age of 18 should enjoy their childhood and have the freedom to develop to their full potential, through the right to survive, develop, be protected and participate in decisions that impact their lives. Therefore, the CRC contains 54 articles with rights and responsibilities regarding the well-being and participation of children in our societies. The convention can be broken down into five main areas:  the right to survival; the right to development; the right to protection; the right to participation; and how governments, the United Nations and other organisations work to make the convention a reality. All the rights in the convention are universal and apply to all children, and are all interlinked and interdependent – making no right more important than the other.

Although the CRC is not legally binding because of domestic laws and national sovereignty, governments should use (and in many cases have) the convention as a moral compass to pass laws to protect and promote children. Moreover, governments should also carry out activities, like teaching people about children’s rights, to ensure that children’s rights are upheld and developed. Parents, teachers and other school staff, healthcare workers, civil society organisations and activists, religious and community leaders, corporations and media can also get involved and play an important part in making World Children's Day a special event and an entry point to promote and protect the rights of children – in our own communities and across the world. For this reason, UNICEF has put together some suggestions:

    • Discuss The Convention on the Rights of the Child with your family using this child friendly version. 
    • Host a youth and children’s ‘takeover’ at your workplace (albeit on a distance) using this UNICEF toolkit.
    • Participate in Voices of Youth’ (for youth, by youth) that have arranged this Illustration Challenge.
    • Decorate and dress up in blue to celebrate and spread awareness about the rights of children.

Young people and children themselves can get involved, to raise their own awareness, and spread information and engagement about their rights in their own lives and around the world. An example of this is TISB’s Grade 3 who have been exploring the topic of Human Rights and Rights of Children this term. The results will be shown in a series of podcast episodes to be released at this year’s Virtual Multicultural Day on the 11 December, under the theme ‘Tune In, Tune Out’.

As a school, TISB believes strongly in the importance of participation and students’ voices. Because of this we have student Prefects in both the Primary Years and in Senior School, as well as student councils in PY and several student-led clubs, where students set the agenda and lead the activities.