On the 20th of November the entire world celebrates the World Children’s Day. This was the exact date in 1959 when the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. Also, on this day in 1989, the UN adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
The main aspects of the rights included in the Declaration are protection, health, support, education, and equality.
Each child needs to be protected at any time and needs access to a save environment including education and healthcare. Each child needs to be supported by family and the government. The government needs to protect children from abuse, violence and being neglected by anyone who looks after them. All the children on this planet have these rights, no matter what and governments must make sure that each child in every country can enjoy all these rights.
The UNCRC is based on the Declaration on the Rights of the Child, which was originally created by Eglantyne Jebb. This woman was one of the world’s most influential champions of children’s rights as she founded Save the Children over 100 years ago.
Eglantyne was born in Shropshire in 1876. She was educated at home and was able to live a happy childhood. But she learned already at a young age about all the suffering existing in the world. From 1895 to 1898 she started to study at Oxford with the intention to become a teacher.
Her activistic journey started when she saw horrible pictures in the newspaper, showing how children are starving all over the world. She created flyers and handed them out with the goal to open people’s eyes. But the people refused to look at the disturbing pictures. After that she got arrested and had to go before a judge to pleas her case. But surprisingly, the judge was impressed by her eagerness to help the children, that the judge himself joined her. With his help she could make her first donation to Save the Children. In 1921, Eglantyne chartered a ship to distribute food to the children in Russia. Due to that action, she was able to safe thousands of children’s lives.
In 1924 she created and presented the Declaration of the Rights of the Child to the world leaders. Her declaration was finally adopted a year later.
Due to the actions of Eglantyne Jebb, many children all over the world can enjoy the childhood that they deserve. But still, there are too many childhoods that are cut short, so the journey is not over yet.