World Children’s Day, first established in 1954 and is celebrated on 20 November each year, promotes ‘international togetherness, awareness among children worldwide, and improving children’s welfare’. Specifically, the Day is when in 1959 the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child.; and in 1989 when the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Convention od the Rights of the Child has 54 articles convering all facets of what comprise ‘children and their rights’. Then ones that pertain to education and / or the environment – which are the focus of this website, are (written as a summary):
- Article 2: The Convention. applies to all children without discrimination
- Article 3: In the best interests of the child
- Article 6: The right to life and child’s right to develop to their full potential
- Article 12: Every child has a right to express their views. feelings and wishes
- Article 15: Every child has the right to meet with other children, and therefore join groups and organisations
- Article 24: very child has the right to … clean water …. a clean environment… education on health & well-being
- Article 28: every child has the right to education.
- Article 31: every child has the right to relax, play and take part in cultural and artistic activities…..
Last Child in the Woods, by Richard Louv – also co-founder of Children & Nature – is the first book (in the United States) to bring together a growing body of research indicating that direct exposure to nature is essential for healthy childhood development and for the physical and emotional health of children and adults.
So what can we do, I hear you ask? More than just raising an alarm, Louv offers practical solutions —and many are right in everyone’s own backyard.
In 2016, Dutch writer Annelies Henstra- wrote this about children’s disconnect with the natural environment: ‘Worldwide there is a significant decline in the quality and quantity
of children’s direct sensory experience of the natural world. Where nature used to be the playground
of children, nowadays most children grow up in cities, where they live a life disconnected
from nature. The technology available in the richer part of the world attracts children to stay indoors and spend many hours behind some sort of screen.’
Source: https://www.un.org/en/observances/world-childrens-day
