In the course of social evolution, humanity made a great way towards protecting rights, freedom, and giving the same opportunities to each member of the society, disregarding their traits other than being human. But despite that, there are still a lot of regions in all the corners of our planet that violate the rights of the children and abuse them. The economic, political, religious, and cultural situations steal the childhood of the youngest members of the community, affecting them with exploitation and slavery.
The basic, first, and foremost goal of the society is to create a safe environment for all the children where they won’t become victims of human trafficking, exploitation, or any other form of abuse. Children deserve not to be free labor force; they need communities that are eager to protect and nourish them, allow them to enjoy their childhood, learn, and reach the best future they can.
What are the children’s rights?
The idea and the basics of children’s rights were nailed in the Convention of the Rights of the Child. This Convention is the set of laws that was thoroughly developed by many international experts from different areas and finally signed by all the United Nations members. Due to this Convention, each child has equal rights since their very birth. These rights don’t depend on their age (every person under 18 or more, if the country laws say so, is still a child), skin color and race, sex and gender, class, family status, and place of birth. Also, on https://lawaspect.com/family-law-essays/ you can read more on family law and children’s rights protection. These laws were created to be especially non-discriminatory and always be beneficial for children. The children always were one of the groups that are affected by mistreatment the most, so the UN Convention is directed on giving them special protection. By doing so, humanity invests in its own future, because the children treated with love, care, and decency are much more able to create a thriving society for the next generations.
Child’s rights history
After both world wars that had a strong impact on the new generation, the UN made a decision to take children’s rights under special protection. The newly created Declaration was based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that was composed and signed by the UN’s predecessor, the League of Nations. At the beginning, this document had only five statements in it – basic human rights weren’t as broad as they are now, and lots of the things that are natural and obvious for us were quite exotic at that time. After it was expanded, the Declaration was outlined to protect the children’s rights as the group of society that needs the utmost care and attention. After the long way of discussions, rewritings, additions, and subtractions, the final document of the Convention on the Rights of the Child was signed up, thus becoming the first (and only for that time) legal document on children’s right protection that was signed internationally.
World Children’s Day
For the last 30 years, the 20th of November has been recognized as the World Children’s Day. It isn’t a celebration only: this date exists to draw attention to the children’s rights and the issues that are connected with protection and providing such rights to them, especially in the countries where there are problems with basic human rights overall. This day was also founded to urge the world governments to promote the statements of the Declaration, to explain them to the common people, families, and communities and to integrate them into everyday life.
Child rights around the world
According to the International Labour Organization data, around 218 million children are forced to work without having the childhood they deserve by simply being children. They have no access to basic education, medical care, and general help, turning into the cheap labor force. Such things should forever be erased and deemed unthinkable in the world that signed the Declaration. Lots of children are used as slaves or soldiers. They become drug couriers and child sex abuse victims in the brothels. Their labor is used in dangerous and unprepared workplaces, and they receive minimal income. Such conditions have a terrible and utterly destructive impact on children’s health, both mental and physical. Such life leaves them forever scarred, plainly denying their rights on survival, care, and protection.
Denial of child rights
There are also some examples in the modern world when child rights were fiercely defended by usual people. In December 2019, the British market chain Tesco got into a scandal because one of the customers (also a child, only six years old!) found out a fact that Christmas cards made in China by the big and seemingly respectable supplier were produced using forced labor.
Even the technological leaders, including such corporations as Apple and Microsoft, had to deal with the US human rights activists and organizations’ legal complaints because of buying cobalt for their production in Democratic Republic Congo where child labor was used to mine that metal.
Even though humanity has created a powerful tool for children’s rights protection, there are still a lot of things to do about this issue. Even the developed countries such as Australia, Canada, and the US still have to do what to be done to defend children’s rights from the abusers, be it their families, laws, or society as a whole.
