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“Children have rights as human beings and also need special care and protection.”  UNICEF

Something from the ever thought-provoking and child advocacy publication (although I see them as a community) Exchange Magazine (US). It’s 20 years since the creation and signing of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. Their daily email (which I highly recommend) was titled “Should we celebrate?”. One of the recent World Forum Global Leader facilitators Youseff Hajjar stated in his address “The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is 20 Years Old: Should We Celebrate?” that although it is the only convention to be signed and ratified by all countries, two are missing, one is Somalia the other is the USA.

So the US hasn’t ratified this convention? Well, Kyoto was a toughie but the Rights of Children? Go here to lend your voice to the campaign for the USA to sign the Convention. The second Bush administration stated in 2001 that “The Convention on the Rights of the Child may be a positive tool for promoting child welfare for those countries that have adopted it. But we believe the text goes too far when it asserts entitlements based on economic, social and cultural rights. … The human rights-based approach … poses significant problems as used in this text.” 

During the Walden University Presidential Youth Debate (thanks Wikipedia) in the run-up to the last US elections, Barack Obama stated that it was “embarrasing” to be in the company of Somalia and that he would review the convention (as well as others). Let’s see if he follows through.

I spent some time with my second class exploring and discussing the UN Convention on the Rigths of the Child. I started out by simply putting it up on the wall. First, it was just another piece of writing on the wall, then the interest, then a few started looking a little closer, then one child started to question. After that, they referred to it constantly and it became a reference tool for discussion in our classroom. I highly recommend including the document in the culture of your classroom or learning community.