When we discuss children's rights, we often start with defining
what is a child.
A
child is anyone below the age of 18 years.
-
Infants
are people below 1 year old
-
Toddlers are people below 4 years old
-
Children, depending on culture, are generally
those who are
below 10 years old
-
Teenagers are people whose ages are suffixed with teens as in
thirteen, fifteen
-
Those not classified are adults (old people)
Therefore all are young people. And young people have different
needs as they grow up.
A
Brief History
After the first World War, a lot of children were hungry and sick,
many died and the world saw this situation.
In 1924, the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child was
adopted. It was composed of five principles aimed at assuring
every child the conditions essential for full development.
Then, the Second World War erupted and more children died, got
hungry and sick.
The United Nations, then a newly created organization, saw these
situations of children.
In 1959, the UN General Assembly adopted unanimously the 10 point
Declaration on the Rights of the Child, a revision and amplification
of the 1924 Declaration.
The whole world did not stop from just reviewing and widening
the scope of the Declaration for the Rights of the Child.
In 1979, the UN proclaimed the International Year of the Child.
It was within this theme that the initiative to define more clearly
human rights standards for children into a single binding international
instrument was realized.
1989, The United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights
of the Child and was entered into force in September 1990.
There
are four broad areas covered by the CRC and these are children's/young
people's rights to:
Survive-
or those that you need to live like food, shelter and clothing.
Develop-
or those which you need to grow as a whole person like, education
for you to develop mentally and intellectually, rest and recreation
for you to develop physically and socially, spiritual activity
for you to develop spiritually; love and care for you to develop
emotionally.
Be
protected- or those you need to be protected from, against abuse,
neglect, and exploitation, in all forms, whether physical, mental,
emotional or sexual abuses.
Participate-
or those you need to be able to be one with a group, like freedom
to speak your own opinion, to have access to good and important
information, and most important of all, your name and nationality,
which you need to be identified as a member of your family, community,
and the society you are in.
--adapted
from "That's Right!" Promoting the Convention on the
Rights of the Child to Children by the Council on the Welfare
of Children. 1996.
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