"A day to celebrate the rights of the child"
September 29
Countries around the world have signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and many have set aside a day to celebrate children. Harnoor Gill, 16, a Commonwealth Correspondent from Georgetown in Canada, reflects on the importance of the day.
“Children aren’t colouring books. You don’t get to fill them with your favourite colours.” – Khaled Hosseini.
Mr. Hosseini is an Afghan-born American novelist and physician who is a citizen of the United States, where he has lived ever since he was fifteen years old. He is a well-known writer of literature and fictional stories including The Kite Runner, And The Mountains Echoes, and A Thousand Splendid Suns.
I picked this particular quote for the reason that I strongly agree with this quote. You can’t pick and choose what you want your children to know, but the children have to choose and pick for themselves on their own. Hence, the relationship of colouring books with favourite colours really means to explain that your child and yourself can’t make the same choices as each other because we all have our different points of view on specific things. National Child Day is an opportunity to look at the child’s point of view. I would like to explain how the day affects you personally, how it can affect children, adults and even senior citizens. Last but not least I want to explain how we can really get the message out there.
In Canada, each November 20th is set aside as the day we celebrate and mark the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It’s very interesting how National Child Day is celebrated internationally and as well as globally on different dates in each country to honour children worldwide.For example in Zambia, they celebrate Child’s Day on April 24th every year and in Singapore they celebrate this significant day on the first Friday of every October. To learn more about this event you should really visit the following website if you want to know more about this initiative; http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/ncd-jne/index-eng.php.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child was actually established in 1954 in order to defend children working in dangerous situations, and to allow all the children of the world an access to education. There are currently over 80 countries participating in this initiative. The more the participants, the more it inspires other countries in the world to join as well because it seems like something good to have your country doing.
This day can affect you as a child. As the declaration states, as a child it’s your day to appreciate being a child. It’s like having your very own day, which seems pretty cool. As a teenager I can emphatically state that it does seem to be quite the honour to be appreciated one day in a year, just like you are singled out for honour on your birthday. If you’re an adult you can be affected by having to appreciate having your kid’s life and helping to get your child’s self-esteem higher by appreciating them more than the usual. By appreciation, I wouldn’t advocate buying him or her some toy, because then your child might use the favour unwisely. What you could do instead is to set aside time to interact with you child as much as you can. Last but not least as a senior, you could go to your grandchild and have a bit of fun with him or her. Maybe even cook or dance with your grandchild, because they really look up to you as a role model.
Hopefully, after reading this you might have been inspired to do something BIG. You can participate in National Child’s Day and realise that as a person of any age or size you can make a difference in this world. To spread this message I would highly recommend sharing information about National Child’s Day and if they don’t believe you, you may be able to use this article as a reference source.
In conclusion, have a merry and happy National Child’s Day on this November 20th.
photo credit: sharon.schneider via photopin cc
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About me: I am a student in Georgetown, Canada, and founder of the Peace Welcome Club. I love to volunteer, read, write, and play basketball. I volunteer with local environmental and youth organizations and am dedicated to raising awareness about youth volunteering. My writing has been published in Indo-Canadian Voice, Asian Journal, Times of India, The Independent & Free Press, and in Amazing Kids! Magazine.
https://www.facebook.com/PeaceWelcomeClub
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Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Commonwealth Youth Programme. Articles are published in a spirit of dialogue, respect and understanding. If you disagree, why not submit a response.
To learn more about becoming a Commonwealth Correspondent please visit: http://www.yourcommonwealth.org/submit-articles/commonwealthcorrespondents/
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