CHILDREN'S RIGHTS ARE 'EVERYBODY'S BUSINESS', SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL ON TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF CHILD RIGHTS CONVENTION
Press Release
SG/SM/7061
HR/4427
CHILDREN'S RIGHTS ARE 'EVERYBODY'S BUSINESS', SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL ON TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF CHILD RIGHTS CONVENTION
19990706 Kofi Annan Tells Children Attending Economic and Social Council Commemorative Meeting: 'Don't Wait Till You Are Grown up, Learn Your Rights Now'Following are remarks by Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the Economic and Social Council meeting on the tenth anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in Geneva today:
This is really a birthday party. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is 10 years old. I am delighted to see that some of you in the audience are about the same age, or not much older.
I am also pleased to see some special friends here representing different parts of the United Nations family:
-- Paolo [Fulci], President of the Economic and Social Council;
-- Carol [Bellamy], Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF);
-- Mary Robinson, High Commissioner for Human Rights;
-- Olara [Otunnu], my Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict; and
-- Nafsiah [Mboi], President of the Committee whose job it is to see that this Convention is really implemented.
Each of us has our share of responsibility for children's rights. Indeed, children's rights are everybody's business. To make them real we need to mobilize everybody: families and communities, governments and voluntary groups, religious leaders and business leaders -- and also children themselves.
Only if we all work together can we secure the rights of all our children, and of generations of children yet unborn.
Our mission to defend human rights is at the heart of everything we do in the United Nations. And the heart of that mission is the right of every individual human being to speak, to act, to grow, to learn and to live according to his or her own conscience. The Convention on the Rights of the Child reminds us that those rights begin at birth.
It is very encouraging that the Convention, based on that crucial principle, has been embraced by almost all members of the United Nations. It has been the driving force behind changes in laws, policy and practice in many countries.
By adopting it, States have freely pledged to be guided, in all their actions affecting all children within their jurisdiction, by a comprehensive set of standards and values.
That means that children's rights can no longer be seen as optional. Respecting them is not an act of charity. It is a binding obligation. No one must be allowed to get away with violating or neglecting children's rights.
Almost every area of government policy affects children in some way, directly or indirectly. But children have no vote -- no say in the political process. It is up to adults to defend children's rights, knowing the terrible costs that society as a whole will pay if it fails to look after them.
"The child is father to the man", it is often said -- and we might add "mother to the woman". What happens in childhood determines the future personality and abilities of the adult: how much they will depend on others, and how far they will be able to support others.
So there is an economic motive, as well as moral and social ones, for giving children's rights special priority. The whole future of the human race will be determined by how we care for our children today.
And now let me say a word directly to the children who are here:
My young friends, it is your rights that are listed and proclaimed in this Convention. Today it is our duty, as adults, to make sure that you enjoy those rights -- you and your brothers and sisters all over the world. But in time it will be your duty to do the same for your children -- and so on down the ages.
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Don't wait till you are grown up. Learn your rights now. Start preparing for the time when you will have to protect the rights of your own children.
The great thing about people of your age, I have found, is that we don't need to convince you that everyone should be free, or that people should treat each other fairly, put up with each other's peculiarities, and live in peace together. To you these things are obvious, and no one has the right to take them away.
Please go on believing that, because it is right!
Please do all you can -- now and when you grow up -- to make sure that everyone around you can really live like that, and enjoy those rights.
So, Happy Birthday, Convention!
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