Children Live in the Sun of Rights Convention

"In the village in India where I was born and raised, the notion of child rights does not exist," Om Prakash Gurjar said.

As his father had no means to pay off the family's debt, five-year-old Om Prakash had to become a bonded laborer. Toiling on the landlord's farm in the scorching sun, he often wondered why he could not go to school like other children.

His salvation came in 2002 when a group of activists from Save the Children Movement arrived at the village and freed him from child labor through arduous efforts and brought him to a special school.

At school, as the hardworking boy absorbed knowledge like a dry sponge soaks up water, it dawned upon him that his rights were blatantly trampled during the three long years as a child laborer.

But at least he found solace in the fact that there were people who were concerned with unfortunate children like him and willing to lend a helping hand.

"Gradually, through our teachers and the other children, I came to understand there are laws to promote and protect children like us," he said. "I learned that these laws not only apply in India and also throughout the world."

Armed with knowledge on child rights laws, he strived to safeguard the rights of his fellow schoolmates and other children around him. He emerged as a warrior for child rights and was awarded the International Children's Peace Prize in 2006.

Om Prakash's story reflects the changes that have occurred since the Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted two decades ago.

On November 20, 1989, the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention that envisions a world in which children's rights to survive and thrive are protected and promoted. Having been ratified by 193 countries by 2009, it is the most widely endorsed international human rights treaty in history.

Twenty years on, as the treaty has reached its "coming of age," much has been achieved in guaranteeing child rights globally. Nevertheless, poverty, hunger and conflicts still beset many children's day-to-day existence, a sobering fact that warns the world much remains to be done.

That is why the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is calling on the world to work together to reach those children who are still being denied their rights to survival, development, protection and participation.

Progress on survival and development

In Villa Soldati, a slum in the Argentinian capital of Buenos Aires, streams of sewage water flow between crowded rundown houses, giving off a putrid smell.

Yet children's laughter could be heard now and then, as a group of boys played football in front of a house. Were it not for a community children's dining hall, their lives could have been much less fun.

Opened in 1996 and funded by private and business donations and subsidies from the municipal government, it provides free meals for hundreds of poor children every day. The dinning hall now has a staff of 30, most of them volunteers.

"I have eight brothers and sisters, and we have come here to eat since last year," 7-year-old German said, wiping bread crumbs off the corner of his mouth and beaming contentedly.

Margarita Barrientos, director of the dining hall, said a kindergarten had also been built and provided free attendance to 130 children from the slum.

Thanks to enhanced social awareness and concrete government efforts, institutions like the dining hall abound in the country, helping underprivileged children to cope with a difficult childhood.

In fact, outstanding achievements have been made globally in fulfilling child rights, with about 70 countries having incorporated relevant codes into national legislation in line with the Convention's provisions.

Take children's education as an example. The number of children out of primary school was reduced from 115 million in 2002 to 101 million in 2007, with a diminished gender gap in primary education, especially in developing countries, according to the special edition of UNICEF's flagship report, the State of the World's Children.

Besides, the number of deaths among children under five years old was reduced from 12.5 million in 1990 to less than 9 million in 2008, while 1.6 billion people worldwide gained access to improved water sources between 1990 and 2006, the report says.

However, risks and dangers still lurk in many children's lives, threatening to undermine the achievements made so far.

Risks and challenges

One morning in 1991, 11-year-old Jaycee Dugard was on her way to a school bus stop near her home in South Lake Tahoe, California, when a car stopped by the street and a woman stepped out and snatched her inside the vehicle.

There was no news of the missing girl until Aug. 25, 2009, when two University of California Berkeley police employees grew suspicious of a man at the campus and carried out investigation.

It was discovered the man, Phillip Garrido, and his wife Nancy abducted Dugard and imprisoned her for 18 years in their home in Antioch, central California, during which time Garrido repeatedly raped the girl and fathered two children with her.

Dugard, now 29, is living in seclusion with her family.

"I'm so happy to be back with my family," she said in a statement. "Nothing is more important than the unconditional love and support I have from them."

The crime, though appalling, is only the tip of an iceberg.

It is reported that about 1.8 million children are reported lost in the United States each year. More than 3 million children are reported as victims of physical, sexual, verbal and emotional abuse, neglect, abandonment and death. And there are about 1,500 child-abuse fatalities every year in the country.

The UNICEF report says at least 4 percent of children in industrialized countries are physically abused each year, while the deprivations of children's rights to survival, development and certain types of protection (such as from child labor) are largely concentrated in certain continents, regions and countries.

For example, South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are the only two regions where the under-five mortality rate exceeded 50 per 1,000 live births in 2008, with South Asia at 76 and sub-Saharan Africa at 144. The rate of child marriage is also much higher in these two regions than any other, at 46 percent for South Asia and 39 percent for sub-Saharan Africa.

Globally, more than 1 billion children are deprived of at least one of their rights including education and essential health care, while violence may affect between 500 million and 1.5 billion children, the report says.

What is worse, the double whammy of the global financial crisis and climate change exacerbate the woes of underprivileged children, especially in the least developed countries.

Experience and research indicate that children are highly vulnerable to economic, demographic and climatic shifts. The repercussions of these shocks can have lifelong consequences that may span generations and undermine efforts to advance child rights in the future.

However, every cloud has a silver lining. History shows that crises can also present opportunities for advancing child rights and well-being: the child rights movement emerged from the shadow of World War I, while UNICEF itself was born from the ashes of World War II, the report says.

Despite current challenges and difficulties, "the world has a unique opportunity to reconstruct itself -- and to dedicate itself afresh to nurturing not only the physical environment but also its most vulnerable human inhabitants," the report says.

Hopes and opportunities

Ayesha Halim's family returned to the Afghan capital city Kabulin 2003after living in exile for seven years in Pakistan to escape the then Taliban regime's repressive rule.

"I was a little scared when we arrived in Kabul. Unlike Islamabad, there was no tap water or electricity," the 13-year-old girl said. "And there were explosions ...."

But she found more horrifying the Taliban militants' hatred of girls' education. In southern Afghanistan, a region fraught with Taliban violence, girls' schools have become the targets of violence. Militants went so far as to pour acid over girl students, causing severe facial burns to 13 girls last year.

"On hearing the news, I told my father that I had made up my mind to become a doctor to help all those poor girls," Ayesha said, her eyes shining with determination.

Girls like Ayesha cannot be stopped from aspiring to an education and a brighter future, and the Afghan government is making strenuous efforts to provide girls with more education opportunities, including a plan to establish 4,900 new schools and4,800 outreach classes between 2007 and 2010.

The international community is also lending a helping hand. For example, UNICEF provided safe drinking water for 320,000 children in 500 schools in Afghanistan in 2008, along with training in hygiene, sanitation and health for 2,500 teachers.

According to a UN report, 1.9 million Afghan girls are now in schools, while five years ago almost no girls attended school in the country.

The huge progress in girls' education in Afghanistan shows that the fulfilment of child rights entails government commitment, international cooperation, as well as active participation of children themselves as holders of the rights stipulated in the Convention.

In fact, participation is one of the guiding principles of the Convention. Understanding the rights they are empowered to claim, children can effectively protect themselves from abuse, violence and exploitation through active participation.

To this end, UNICEF proposes that the Convention should be taught in schools to raise children's awareness on their own rights.

"To make the vision of the Convention a reality for every child, it must become a guiding document for every human being," UNICEF said in the special edition of the report on the state of the world's children.

Today's children will be tomorrow's adults and the builders of the world's future. As they grow up and recall all the work that has been done to make the world a better place for them to live in, they will cherish all the more the rights of their own children.

Suffice it to say that safeguarding child rights is safeguarding everyone's rights, and protecting children is protecting the entire human race.

"In this time of crisis and uncertainty, 20 years after the Convention's adoption, we must seize the opportunity to put its principles into practice," UNICEF said.

"If we truly believe that the world owes its children the best it has to give, we can do no less," it concluded.

(Xinhua News Agency November 20, 2009)