On May 5, 2016, His Highness Dr. Shaikh Sultan Bin Mohammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, and his wife, Shaikha Jawaher Bint Mohammad Al Qasimi, UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) Eminent Advocate for Refugee Children, attended the Global Child Forum in Kuala Lumpur. The event was held under the patronage of, and with the active participation of Carl XVI Gustaf, the King of Sweden, and Queen Silvia. “Children need to live safely with their families if they have to reach their full potential,” said His Highness Dr. Shaikh Sultan. He called for legislation and policies to protect children and guarantee their human rights.
Dr. Shaikh Sultan called on world leaders and the international community to ensure the rights of children to education, health, and protection from abuse and exploitation. Shaikha Jawaher called on governments, institutions, and decision-makers to pay attention to forgotten groups of children around the world. She said, “The future of peace in the entire world requires a united international stand towards underprivileged children around the world. For the next generation to grow up strong, well, and wise, and lead us to a more progressive future, we must provide for all their needs now. Today, these children need an education, decent health care, and psychological stability in order to secure a future of peace, progress, and stability for the entire world.” Shaikha Jawaher added, “Suffering is not a destiny that faces a particular people, but a passing phase that will come to an end thanks to cooperation and collective efforts of the international community and the sincere desire to ensure a better future for generations to come. Childhood experiences can last a lifetime, so we must work together to ensure we do not have a lost generation of adults of tomorrow if we really want peace and development for all. We must start working with today’s children throughout the world, working together to protect them and the future of humanity.”
The theme of the forum was “Mobility and Connectivity: Children’s Rights and Sustainable Business.” It highlighted opportunities for advancing children’s rights through increased connectivity and mobility in the region and ensured that children’s rights would be respected and fulfilled.
Child safety issues can ruin the future of any country and need to be addressed as a priority and dealt with. The Emirates Foundation has launched a campaign to address the rate of accidental deaths among children in the UAE. According to the National News Agency, 45,500 children were exposed to dangerous situations over a two year period. So, as part of a vision to overcome the problems that children in the region face, Sharjah is promoting children’s rights and welfare by organizing workshops at schools. The 2015 Child Safety Campaign, which the Sharjah Supreme Council for Family Affairs launched, signed the agreement with the Protection of Children’s Rights Administration as part of the Sharjah Department of Social Services. According to the report by the state news agency, both parties would cooperate and share experiences to implement child-protection standards as part of the campaign. The goal was to develop a safe and nurturing environment for children in Sharjah in accordance with international standards.
Hanadi Al Yafei, Head of the Campaign Organizing Committee, said, “The agreement highlights efforts to protect children and promote their rights and safety to ensure they achieve their full potential in the future.” Further, Ahmed Al Tartour, Director of the Protection of Children’s Rights Administration stated, “This initiative shows the great attention paid by the Sharjah Government to protect children from any danger or violence.” In addition, Al Tartour stated that, according to the agreement, there would be 70 workshops at 45 government and private schools for three age groups, covering 2,350 boys and girls. He continued, “The type of workshop will differ from one age group to another with respect to children’s comprehension and cognitive abilities. In addition, there will be joint activities and programs to spread awareness and educate children about their rights.”
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (commonly abbreviated as the CRC, CROC, or UNCRC) is a human rights treaty which sets out the civil, political, economic, social, health, and cultural rights of children. The UN General Assembly adopted the Convention and opened it for signatures on November 20, 1989. It came into force on September 2, 1990, after the required number of nations ratified it. Currently, 196 countries are party to it (that is, every member of the United Nations except the United States). The Convention defines a child as any human being under the age of 18 years, unless the age of majority is attained earlier under national legislation.
Nations that ratify this convention are bound to it by international law. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which comprises member countries from around the world, monitors compliance. Once a year, the Committee submits a report to the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly, which also hears a statement from the CRC Chair, and the Assembly adopts a Resolution on the Rights of the Child.
Governments of countries that have ratified the Convention are periodically required to report to, and appear before, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child for the examination of their progress with regard to the advancement of the implementation of the Convention and the status of child rights in their country.
I would like to say something about Katherine Jean "Kate" Bolduan, a CNN broadcast journalist. She has hosted many shows dealing with different topics and is well known for being articulate and asking tough, relevant questions. I decided to write about her because of her pure heart and her efforts to raise her voice against the suffering of children. On August 18, 2016, she spoke out in a very different way.
She shared a video of a five-year-old Syrian named Omran Daqneesh, who was sitting in the back of an ambulance with blood and soot all over him. The boy was in shock. Bolduan was tasked with explaining what had happened to him: he and his family had been pulled from the rubble that was once their house. She said that there had been an air strike, which was common in the country as it had been embroiled in a violent civil war for years. The country was experiencing severe disruption. All of this made her cry. But she had to stop and compose herself a few times. She said, “What strikes me is we shed tears, but there are no tears here. He doesn’t cry once. That little boy is in total shock. He’s stunned, inside his home one moment and the next, lost in the fury and the flurry of war and chaos.”
It really is a matter of great sorrow that we can feel their suffering but are unable to act conclusively for their sake and their rights. Bravo Katherine!
The Big Heart Foundation has also launched a local campaign seeking the support of UAE citizens and residents for Palestinian and Syrian refugee children, child cancer sufferers, and children in need. The campaign aims to help alleviate the suffering of children affected by wars and those with cancer by providing them with essentials such as healthcare, access to clean water, clothes, and shelter. Mariam Al Hammadi, director of the foundation, said, “As underprivileged children continue to suffer, we must step up our efforts to provide them with more support. The launch of this community campaign comes in line with our commitment to provide the needs of those children and ensure they live a dignified life.”
In July and August 2014, 148 children from 16 countries, aged six to 18 and speaking eight different languages, participated in work-shops to share their views on their rights in the digital age. The workshops were a joint effort of the Young and Well Cooperative Research Center (CRC), the Institute for Culture and Society at the University of Western Sydney, the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, and UNICEF, in partnership with the Digitally Connected Network.
On September 12, 2014, the committee discussed the children’s views, which they got from the workshop on the last day of General Discussion on the issue of “Children’s Rights and Digital Media.”
Children around the world increasingly think of access to digital media as a fundamental right. For children in the developing world, and for some in the developed world, access is still the biggest issue they face in relation to using digital media to enact their rights.
Regardless of the country they live in, the language they speak, or their socio-economic background, if children have regular and reliable access to digital media, they tend to use it for a common set of purposes: social connectedness, access to information, education, self-expression/creativity, and entertainment. Although children are concerned about how their digital media practices might negatively impact their rights, they overwhelmingly experience digital media as a positive influence on their lives.
The trifold literacy that characterizes today’s very user-driven digital media environment—digital, media, and social literacy—is fundamental to children’s capacity to use digital media competently and exercise their rights in and with digital media. Literacy provides the technical and higher-order evaluative skills required to access, understand, produce, and participate in digital media.
While children noted that digital media facilitated their communicative, educational, and informational needs, many found it difficult to articulate the ways in which digital media enhanced their lives and their rights in more specific and precise terms. In contrast, they generally found it much more straightforward to enunciate the risks and challenges associated with their digital media practices, quite possibly because the risk narrative had dominated their schooling in online practices.
Children understand their digital rights as being closely intertwined with their human rights in broader terms. They do not readily distinguish between the online and the offline, but regard digital spaces as constituting just another setting in which they live their lives.
Children’s safety on connected media is vital, but it needs to be understood in the context of the spectrum of their digital rights; for example, children’s rights of provision and participation in the Convention on the Rights of the Child Agency is as crucial to the positive, effective use of digital media as safety. Without the agency needed to participate and exercise rights, children can neither take advantage of the opportunities digital media can afford nor develop resiliency when facing risks. Moreover, they must be encouraged to think critically and develop their own language, views, strategies, associations, and interests as users of connected digital media.
Children increasingly see digital media as crucial to their rights to information, education, and participation. By engaging with digital media, they learn new skills and develop their talents; they become informed citizens of the world who can contribute meaningfully to their communities; and they foster friendships, family ties, and a sense of community and belonging. These things are important to their resilience and well-being.
Children worry about how their digital participation might compromise their protection rights, and they take active steps to keep themselves safe. They don’t always worry about the same things that concern adults. We need child-centered definitions of the risks and opportunities associated with digital media.
Children say that the rights they enjoy in relation to digital media come with real responsibilities. These include understanding the consequences of their engagements, being personally accountable for the ways in which their online interactions impact others, and knowing when to exercise self-control. They also want adults to understand how and why they use digital media, and they want to be trusted to use it wisely.
Policy makers and practitioners must engage children in an ongoing conversation about how to use digital media to support children’s rights. Children want to be involved in these conversations. They want to take responsibility for making the internet a better place, and they have valuable expertise to share.
One term that really hurts me is “child marriage.” Global organizations define it as a formal marriage or informal union that an individual enters into before reaching the age of 18 years. It is a very common illegal act found in major parts of the world. The statistics regarding child marriage may surprise you: every year, 15 million girls get married before the age of 18 years. That translates into 28 girls every minute and one girl every two seconds. While conducting research on this topic, I collected this data from a global organization, Girls Not Brides, which is a partnership of more than 700 civil society organizations from over 90 countries that are committed to ending child marriage and enabling girls to fulfil their potential. Great job!
Child marriage is a human rights violation that we must end to achieve a fairer future for all. Child brides face huge challenges as they are isolated, their freedom is often curtailed, they frequently feel disempowered, and they are deprived of their fundamental rights to health, education, and safety.
Today, we have a unique opportunity to act and accelerate our efforts to help change the lives of girls and young women all over the world.
Girls Not Brides has developed a Theory of Change to demonstrate the range of approaches needed to address child marriage and crucially highlight that everyone has a role to play. The Theory of Change stresses the importance of long-term, sustainable interventions that are coordinated, well-resourced, and the result of shared learning. It focuses on four main strategies: empowering girls, mobilizing families and communities, providing services, and establishing and implementing laws and policies.
These four strategy areas are used to illustrate the types of effective interventions that are helping to prevent child marriage and to support married girls all over the world.
Consider this brief statement of facts about child marriage:
I am writing this page on June 12, 2017, and it occurs to me that the date coincides with the World against Child Labor Day. According to the UN, today, around 215 million children around the world work, many of them full-time. They do not go to school and have little or no time to play. Many do not receive proper nutrition or care and are denied the chance to be children. More than half of them are exposed to the worst forms of child labor, including work in hazardous environments, slavery, other forms of forced labor, illicit activities like drug trafficking, and involvement in armed conflict.
One of the major aims set for the International Labor Organization (ILO) at its founding in 1919 was the abolition of child labor. From 1919 onwards, the principle that minimum age standards should be linked to schooling and that they should not be lower than the age of completion of compulsory schooling has been part of the ILO’s standard-setting tradition in this area.
Child labor that is proscribed under international law falls into three categories: