On 10th December 1959 The Declaration of the Rights of the Child was adopted by the United Nations under General
Assembly Resolution 1386 (XIV). Below are those 10 rights presented in a more concise, plain-speaking format.
This resolution can be found at http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/humanrights/resources/child.asp.
1 All children have the right to what follows, no matter what their race, colour sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, or where they were born or who they were born to.
2 You have the special right to grow up and to develop physically and spiritually in a healthy and normal way, free and with dignity.
3 You have a right to a name and to be a member of a country.
4 You have a right to special care and protection and to good food, housing and medical services.
5 You have the right to special care if handicapped in any way.
6 You have the right to love and understanding, preferably from parents and family, but from the government where these cannot help.
7 You have the right to go to school for free, to play, and to have an equal chance to develop yourself and to learn to be responsible and useful. Your parents have special responsibilities for your education and guidance.
8 You have the right always to be among the first to get help.
9 You have the right to be protected against cruel acts or exploitation, e.g. you shall not be obliged to do work which hinders your development both physically and mentally. You should not work before a minimum age and never when that would hinder your health, and your moral and physical development.
10 You should be taught peace, understanding, tolerance and friendship among all people.
I mention this for two (connected) reasons. Firstly, almost everyone I know is completely unaware of the existence of these rights which, let me remind you, we all signed up to as members of the United Nations. 50 years on it is easy to dismiss this as another piece of finely-crafted meaningless bureaucratic twaddle. And yet throughout that time, and arguably now more than ever, there has been a real need for radical, progressive policies to protect the world’s children.
The second reason for bringing children’s rights up now is that I was reminded of them whilst following coverage of the tragic earthquake in Haiti. Amongst the appalling stories of death and destruction I was drawn to the tale of the tale of some of Port Au Prince’s many orphanages. Now, in terms of likely quality of life, being an orphan in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere is already bad enough without having your orphanage destroyed by an earthquake. Fate has really dealt those children a tough hand and it has been heartening to read of the efforts by individuals and charities to alleviate the suffering.
However we need something much more systemic and global. There were 380,000 orphans in Haiti before the earthquake and some charities are predicting that the number could double or even reach 1 million soon (that would be 10% of the whole population). They have been orphaned mainly by previous natural disasters, by parents who have abandoned them for a new life in the USA or who are simply too poor to care for them. If there was ever a time and place for a UN sponsored global programme to bring action to the words of the 1959 Declaration then now is it and Haiti is the place.
As it stands “expert” opinion is divided on what to do. Individuals, groups and charities are mounting efforts to take children out of Haiti but this is only scratching at the surface and, without proper checks and balances, is open to traffickers. Meanwhile some argue that removal of children from their home country could lead them to have “long-term psychological problems” (source: SOS Children’s Villages - The Independent). It might just be me but I am finding it difficult to grasp the idea that anything could be more psychologically problematic than being homeless and parentless in a country which will take years to recover to its previous status as poorest in the Western Hemisphere.
The only alternative to mass international adoption will be the repair of the country of Haiti. I don’t have time and space here to describe how difficult and unlikely that scenario is, except to say that time is the crucial factor. The gaze of the world is currently on Haiti, but it is a fickle gaze and will pass when news producers feel we have had enough. If a radical, globally-backed solution, designed to ensure Haitian orphans get the rights we enshrined for them, is not forthcoming soon it will never happen.