Children's rights worldwide.
A festival of children's rights!
11/24/2021 - News
Debate, song and poetry were on the agenda on November 20th. On the occasion of the International Day of Children's Rights, the participants of the # CovidUnder19 initiative organized a virtual children's rights festival under the motto "Reinventing a better world for every child". Children and adults spoke about the question: How can we get children to claim their rights and participate in political decision-making processes?
Among the presentations were also very creative ideas, like those from Januka and Amrit, two 18 and 19 year old activists from Nepal. Her animation won the national children's rights video competition. "Our video makes children aware of their rights in a playful way," says Amrit.
At the end of the day, the children and young people expressed their demands:
"We are # CovidUnder19, a collective of children, youth, civil society organizations and academics. We believe that children's rights are the foundation to move forward, get stronger and together create a better, brighter and greener future after the pandemic.
We are still seeing how the pandemic is negatively affecting children's rights, especially those from marginalized groups. Children continue to be marginalized by those in power and children's rights are not high on government agendas when it comes to rebuilding and responding to the pandemic.
[...]
We demand that all adult leaders take steps to respect and fulfill their obligations regarding all children's rights, especially those that are most at risk from the pandemic. This includes the right of children:
- to be heard and that their opinion is duly taken into account (Article 12 CRC)
- obtain sufficient funds for the realization of children's rights (Article 4)
- to be protected from violence (Article 19)
- Access to the highest levels of health, including mental health, taking into account the dangers and risks of pollution (Article 24)
- be treated equally and without discrimination (Article 2)
We believe that the recovery and renewal of COVID-19 requires investments for children and that they should be key partners in shaping the post-pandemic world. [...] "
Check out the contributions made by the children and young people on the # CovidUnder19 YouTube channel.
