Public Service Announcement #16
It's time: The Rights of Every Child Initiative is here
PSA: The Rights of Every Child
I have an announcement, and I couldn’t be more eager to share it and invite you.
What is The Rights of Every Child?
The Rights of Every Child initiative will bring awareness to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child through art and advocacy.
I’ve been dreaming and working on this for months. It speaks to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. To the way we treat children . The way they and their rights are being treated—and violated—right now. It’s time. It’s time to spread the word. It’s time to speak out for children. It’s time to uphold their vital rights.
In the coming days, weeks, months, and beyond we’ll share creations by talented, caring artists who are vocal about children’s rights to convey one of those guaranteed rights that’s close to their heart as only they uniquely can.
It’s time! Thank you for joining as this movement grows, and blooms into something we can only create and do together on behalf of children—every one.
Thank you Hanami Sutton of Made by Super for this gorgeous logo as well as copious design and tech help . Hanami does tons of creative branding and graphic design if anyone you know is in need of the talents of a gifted, generous soul.
And thanks to Julie Rowan Zoch. Through our “If you write for kids, fight for kids” collaboration she said something brilliant, which gave me the idea for a new endeavor that’s larger in scope .
Our first illustration: Every child has a right to survival
The first piece of art by Addy Rivera Sonda!
“We are making it impossible for children to survive today, especially for Black, brown, poor, gender non-conforming, disabled children, and we are making it increasingly harder for ALL children to survive in a world that has been exploited and abused for the gain of very few. But not all is lost, we can choose to fight (and I see many doing it, giving everything for the future of children) not only for survival, but for a life where we can find peace, joy, purpose, and understand ourselves as part of the magnificent nature that is possible in this world.”
Addy is one of the artists who’s generously signed onto this project behind-the-scenes. I chose to unveil her piece first because survival is inherent. It’s the most basic of all the rights. And it is urgent. Addy beautifully but gently captures this urgency of what threatens children as well as the spirit of kids as they should be. She lovingly created this piece that exudes intentionally, expression, and emotion.
Addy Rivera Sonda is a children's book illustrator who loves color, learning, and exploring ways in which we could build kinder and more interdependent communities. Her biggest inspiration for drawing is that she knows that stories and art have an impact on the way people understand themselves and perceive others, building empathy, and affecting change in our world.
And it’s not our first time collaborating: “Children, Children All Children, Our Kin.”
How to stay connected to The Rights of Every Child
The UN Convention on the Rights of The Child (UNCRC)
“All the rights are connected, they are all equally important and
they cannot be taken away from children.”
(UN)
A children’s version of the UNCRC.
In 1989, over a hundred world leaders signed and ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, a treaty for human rights centering children. The UNCRC is “the most rapidly and widely ratified international human rights treaty in history.” However, according to Amnesty, while 196 UN member countries have [now] done so, the United States, while having signed it, is the only one not to have ratified it.
Egregious state violence against children, unjust detainment, starvation, lack of medical access—each and any violation of the right of a child is an affront to their and our collective humanity. Children need and deserve education, health care, self-expression, culture, freedom, and at the most basic, to survive. We are failing as we let these rights be transgressed without proper acknowledgment and without swift, decisive action.
The history
Image: Sam Rodriguez
“The future of the world rests with the child.”
Eglanytne Jebb
The seeds of the UNCRC go back to the woman who founded Save the Children in the UK, Eglantyne Jebb who said those powerful words a hundred years ago. Having already begun Save the Children with her sister, a fund for starving children after World War One, in 1924, she presented the “Declaration of the Rights of the Child to world leaders in Geneva—asserting that every child had human rights.” A few months before, she’d climbed the Salève mountain in Switzerland despite doctors advising rest for her health. It was there she meditated on the combination she fervently believed in of ideals combined with action in order to take on our collective social responsibility of truth, love, and service.
In 1959, a version of her document was adopted by the UN and in 1989, the one we know today was formalized.
Jebb showed us the way with philosophy backed by practicality. The 5 simple articles of her manifesto blossomed into the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Those rights are the heart of this project. Because their heart is the wellbeing of children, which is horribly threatened. If the future rests on them, we need to protect them, cherish them, and, as Jebb pointed out: “recogniz[e] that [human]kind owes the Child the best that it has to give…” (The wording of some of her assertions is striking to the contemporary ear, but the message comes through: children have rights and must be protected with special care.)
What’s next?
My hope is we can collectively call on people and leaders to give voice to the rights of children being transgressed and neglected in Gaza, in Lebanon, in Sudan, Congo and elsewhere—including here in the US, where I live. To honor the rights of children in all our actions and our daily lives. To ask others to. And, ultimately, to begin the process of the US ratifying the UNCRC—because even as a symbol, it is a powerful acknowledgement of a commitment to children’s welfare and the future of world.
Here are two pieces of art to look forward to dropping in our Instagram feed. Many more will follow. And here’s the big hope down the road: to create a tangible compilation as well!
Art by Amal Barghout-Karzai and Sana Alfalasi, with enormous thanks:
How to stay connected
How to help
If you have a way to support this project, please reach out! For example, if you know anyone at Save the Children. If you have resources in the form of time or skills and want to be in the circle of stakeholders who can invest in this project. If you have experience with or know someone versed in the process of ratifying a bill in the U.S. legislature. If you know a friend who would love to know about and stay in the loop on this project, please reach out to them and let them know it exists.
Fall paid subscriber meet-up!
Okay, let’s have another virtual hello + inspiration-session + Q&A! If you’d like to join, please upgrade your subscription! I’ll email you with the details to log on! We are tentatively set for Tuesday, December 3rd at 5pm PST.
Paid subscriber upgrades
Aside from supporting me as a writer, I host video Q&A’s two-four times a year for paid subscribers. Our first two were neat opportunities for discussion together! If you’re a subscriber who’d like to upgrade before the next one this fall, you can join in too! And if you can’t, no worries about that either.
Thank you for spending this time with me and for reading! I hope it served you as moments well spent. And please do tell a friend, leave a comment, or stay tuned for the next PSA from Danielle Davis.
❤️ 🌎 ❤️ Thank you for your incredible work in bringing awareness to this issue!
I am just reading this now. It really hurts.