Heal the World! Recognize Children!

A child is the same all over the world – a bundle of innocence, joy, and beautiful imagination at play! Watching a child murmuring a story with excitement and gestures, as he/she flips and moves toys and art material around the house, staying for hours at a table or on the floor assembling Legos or puzzle pieces, drawing and coloring almost every slip of reusable paper, cutting crookedly reusable cardboard and taping them on any table top or a room wall.. All these examples depict a free soul, tireless body, limitless ideas, and a thrilled heart. Simply, that’s why we adults are advised by holistic experts to live today, live the now, live as a child does...

A child knows no fear of tomorrow or anger and resentment about yesterday, although as little children grow up into their adolescence, they will have developed ego-originated habits and thinking patterns. Here lies the life challenge!

For decades, a considerable number of children around the globe had been horrifically abused. However, the world had started to shed light upon those practices, which turned children into victims, and consequently, agitated the world’s collective energy and positive vibes.

There has also been a vast sparking attention to cases of inequality gaps in education, and many organizations are currently incubating plans and efforts to weaken the effects of social and economic factors responsible for discrimination, inequality, and exclusion of children of all ages.

Global Campaign of Education GCE, a civil global movement, has developed a strategic plan of six focus areas on the national, regional and global scales to enforce equality and inclusion in the education sectors, private and public, so that clear sets of dynamics are incorporated to achieve less abuse in schools. Part of this is the Arab Campaign for Education for All ACEA, which is taking considerable, effective decisions in promoting quality education for all children in the Arab region, embedding socio-economic advancements. Saudi Arabia, for example, has launched in unison with World Child’s Day and its Vision 2030, a virtual kindergarten, that reinforces children’s rights to explore digital learning and be ready for future skills.

The European Union EU countries have also endorsed children’s rights and issued the concept of “ombudsperson”, or child’s commissioner, who is responsible for a child’s protection and rights accordingly. Furthermore, ombudspersons constantly reflect the best interests of the children, which could simply be neglected. They can also influence government activities.

Th German Sofia Strategy started from the grassroot levels, as it involved campaigns across the various domains, so that there is full coverage of children’s rights.

The Council of Europe also published The Child Participation Tool CPAT, aligning with Article 12 of UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, addressing the underestimation of children’s opinions and measuring efficiency using indicators. It also offers children the right to express their views and be part of the decision-making processes.

Cementing these child protective and social empowerment efforts, a prize known as the International Children’s Peace Prize, which is initiated by the international children’s rights organization KidsRights and presented by a Nobel Peace Laureate. More than 160 countries are represented in the grand ceremony reinforcing the accountability of global communities towards children. “Listen to the children and act” was the call.

However, the Debris:

(Many landmarks were lit with blue, celebrating this day, but it was a timid celebration. Isn't this the case when some children started this day with pain and suffering? When do we view posters, banners, articles, and gifts on this day as unfair or even futile, as fatality rates remain high?)

1. Political Conflicts: Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General states that for every child, there is every right, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child CRC initiated 30 years ago, has made subtle progress in reducing violations against children. However, he does state that “..millions of children still suffer from war, poverty, discrimination, and disease.” War zones, such as Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Mexican families due to M.P.P. program, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Myanmar and few other regions are causing severely physical, mental, and emotional injuries, even death to hundreds of children.

2. Gender Conflicts: Girls’ potential and girls' roles in the growing world have been a vital topic for years. However, up until today, gender differences and vulnerabilities are not fairly tackled in all regions and across certain ages.

3. Medical Conditions: World Health Organization WHO has been scaling up its efforts to reach as many children in the world as possible, especially in remote regions, collaborating with disease control agencies. It is not only exerting efforts at vaccinating; it is also striving to spread the word among those closed communities. For example, children’s measles and meningitis have been widely fought through robust immunization campaigns. However, they are not yet under full control. According to 2019 February UN measles surveillance data report, Europe still did not reach its elimination status of the disease. Cholera, AIDS/HIV and Ebola have been threatening lives of millions of children and until today, they also remain out of full control.

4. General Health Issues: Despite social media awareness, children and adolescents still do not engage much in physical activities in this age of technology and screen addiction. “From 2001 to 2016 we found that there’s been no improvement in patterns of activity in this age group (11-17)…one hour out of their lives each day be physically active and to get a health benefit from being physically active,” said Dr. Leanne Riley, speaking about a study conducted by World Health Organization and announced in November 2019. Disabilities issues count as well in inhibiting normal growth and development of children when the environments are not properly equipped to support the disabled.

5. Economic Conditions: Poverty, unemployment of parents, failure to have proper homes, schools and medication, as well as parent debts are all crippling, pushing children to child labor at an early age.

6. General Life Habits: Lack of outdoor play, screen and technology excessive usage, lack of reading, lack of active social life, deterioration of general values and morals, such as respect of the elderly and cooperation with parents are diminishing children's line of development.

7. Social cases: Matters such as divorce, single parenthood, custody procedures, asylum and forced immigration are harsh, determining the fate of children's mental health. Having stable homes and lines of relatives and friends are not always enjoyed by children around the world, who find themselves stranded and insecure.

8. Cognitive factors: Children are not responsible for the backgrounds they come from. Parents, guardians, and schools, if accessible to low-income families, who are deprived of learning opportunities or have less access to such experiences, cannot pass fruitful environments to their children.

9. Awareness: This is the most critical factor in my opinion because it has life-long, rippling impact! Nurturing the deep self of a child cannot be attained when there are no opportunities for awareness of life, purposes, and clear directions. When children see and experience only the superficial sides of life, layers and layers of knots and conflicts are being woven within a child, that will need years and years to be disentangled!

It is good that social accountability has been growing vastly in the last two decades, placing governments and authorities under close monitor to ensure that all the provisions are being met, securing children’s rights. Children are part of our communities and they should be also a part of decision-making.

Pledging to children’s rights is not to be forced because it is simply, a right, a norm and practice that simply exist, not should exist or coax governments and communities to make it exist!

Every member of society, including governors, researchers, educators, activists, funders, trainers, and therapists, along with parents, relatives, and friends should be held accountable for maintaining a healthy child environment, fostering development, funding campaigns and coalitions to achieve high expectations, through well-researched, unbiased, tangible goal-oriented monitoring system tools, that can assess and evaluate real-life children's situations.

Can we outlast all the above factors and triumph over the challenges? Will the 2030 Global Agenda fulfill its accountability?

Until then, let’s “heal the world,, make it a better place…”