An Open Letter to the World's Children
To mark the 30 years of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta H. Fore has written an Open Letter to the World’s Children outlining eight concerns for children’s future along with reasons for hope.
In the three decades following the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in spite of an exploding global population, we have reduced the number of children missing out on primary school by almost 40 per cent. The number of stunted children under 5 years of age dropped by over 100 million. Three decades ago, polio paralyzed or killed almost 1,000 children every day. Today, 99 per cent of those cases have been eliminated. Many of the interventions behind this progress – such as vaccines, oral rehydration salts and better nutrition – have been practical and cost-effective. The rise of digital and mobile technology and other innovations have made it easier and more efficient to deliver critical services in hard-to reach communities and to expand opportunities.
Yet poverty, inequality, discrimination and distance continue to deny millions of children their rights every year, as 15,000 children under 5 still die every day, mostly from treatable diseases and other preventable causes. We are facing an alarming rise in overweight children, but also girls suffering from anaemia. The stubborn challenges of open defecation and child marriage continue to threaten children’s health and futures. Whilst the numbers of children in school are higher than ever, the challenge of achieving quality education is not being met. Being in school is not the same as learning; more than 60 per cent of primary school children in developing countries still fail to achieve minimum proficiency in learning and half the world’s teens face violence in and around school, so it doesn’t feel like a place of safety. Conflicts continue to deny children the protection, health and futures they deserve. The list of ongoing child rights challenges is long.
And your generation, the children of today, are facing a new set of challenges and global shifts that were unimaginable to your parents. Our climate is changing beyond recognition. Inequality is deepening. Technology is transforming how we perceive the world. And more families are migrating than ever before. Childhood has changed, and we need to change our approaches along with it.
So, as we look back on 30 years of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, we should also look ahead, to the next 30 years. We must listen to you – today’s children and young people – about the issues of greatest concern to you now and begin working with you on twenty-first century solutions to twenty-first century problems.
The eight areas of concern and potential for hope:
1. You need clean water, clean air and a safe climate: Climate change has the potential to undermine basic rights of a clean environment to live in, clean air to breathe, water to drink and food to eat and to undo most of the gains made in child survival and development over the past 30 years. “To mitigate climate change, governments and business must work together to tackle the root causes….Meanwhile, we must give the highest priority to efforts to find adaptations that reduce environmental impacts on children.”
2. One in four of you are likely to live and learn in conflict and disaster zones: “Children have always been the first victims of war. Today, the number of countries experiencing conflict is the highest it has ever been since the adoption of the Child Rights Convention in 1989. One in four children now live in countries affected by violent fighting or disaster, with 28 million children driven from their homes by wars and insecurity…. Conflicts and natural disasters have already disrupted learning for 75 million children and young people, many of whom have migrated across borders or been displaced. That is a personal tragedy for every single child….Worse, creating a lost, disillusioned and angry generation of uneducated children is a dangerous risk that could cost us all.” “UNICEF is collaborating with Microsoft and the University of Cambridge to develop a ‘learning passport’ – a digital platform that will facilitate learning opportunities for children and young people within and across borders. The learning passport is being tested and piloted in countries hosting refugees, migrants and internally displaced persons.”
3. We must make it okay to talk about mental health: “The evidence actually shows that teens today smoke less, drink less, get into less trouble and generally take fewer risks than previous generations. You might even call them Generation Sensible….Yet there is one area of risk for adolescents showing an extremely worrisome trend in the wrong direction…. Mental health disorders among under 18s have been rising steadily over the past 30 years and depression is now among the leading causes of disability in the young.” “Early detection and treatment are key to preventing episodes of mental distress reaching a crisis point and precious young lives being damaged and lost. But all too often, what stands in the way of young people seeking help at an early stage is the ongoing stigma and taboo that prevents communities talking openly about mental health problems. Fortunately, this taboo is beginning to fall, and young people, once again, are leading the way – founding non-governmental organizations, developing apps, raising awareness, and being vocal about their own struggles with mental illness and their efforts to address their condition, in hope that others feel empowered to do the same.”
4. Over 30 million of you have migrated from your place of birth: “For many, migration is propelled by a drive for a better life. But for too many children, migration is not a positive choice but an urgent necessity – they simply do not have the opportunity to build a safe, healthy and prosperous life in the place they are born….And one of the greatest migrations the world has ever seen is happening not across borders, but within borders, with millions migrating internally from rural to urban areas….Though urban residents on average enjoy better access to services and opportunities, inequalities can be so large that many of the most disadvantaged children in urban areas fare worse than children in rural areas. For example, the poorest urban children in 1 in 4 countries are more likely to die before their fifth birthday than the poorest children in rural areas. And the poorest urban children in 1 in 6 countries are less likely to complete primary school than rural children.” “The so-called urban advantage breaks down when we look beyond averages and control for wealth, so social policies and programmes designed to support child survival and development must pay greater attention to the poorest and most marginalized urban children.”
5. Thousands of you will officially never exist, unless we act: “Every child has a right to a legal identity, to birth registration and a nationality. But a quarter of you born today - almost 100,000 babies – may never have an official birth certificate or qualify for a passport.” “Registering children at birth is the first step in securing their recognition before the law, safeguarding their rights, and ensuring that any violation of these rights does not go unnoticed. The United Nations has set a goal that every human being on the planet will have a legal identity by 2030. UNICEF is supporting governments to work towards this goal, starting with registering all births.”
6. You need 21st century skills for a 21st century economy: “…in the past 30 years, relative income inequality between countries has reduced, but absolute income inequality has increased significantly, so that some children and families with low incomes are left behind and miss out on the opportunities their richer peers enjoy. Moreover, mobility has stalled over the last 30 years, miring another generation in a poverty trap determined entirely by the family she or he is born into.” “UNICEF and our global partners have launched a new initiative to prepare young people to become productibe and engaged citizens. Generation Unlimited aims to ensure every young person is in school, learning, training or employed by 2030….Through our Youth Challenge, we are bringing together bright young minds to solve problems in their communities, because young people are experts in their own lives and experiences.”
7. Your digital footprint must be protected: “The world wide web was born in the same year as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, 30 years ago….Debates about the benefits and dangers of social media for children are becoming familiar, and more action to protect children from bullying and exposure to harmful content is certainly needed. Parent and children are also becoming aware of the risk of sharing too much personal information on social media. But the truth is, the data contained within social media profiles created by children are just the tip of the data iceberg. Less well understood but at least as important, is the enormous accumulation of data being collected about children….Personal information created during childhood may be shared with third parties, traded for profit or used to exploit young people – particularly the most vulnerable and marginalized….search engines track users’ behaviour regardless of their age, and government surveillance of online activity is increasingly sophisticated around the world. Moreover, data collected during childhood have the potential to influence future opportunities, such as access to finance, education, insurance, and health care.” “The Convention on the Rights of the Child makes it clear that children have a specific right to privacy and there is no reason this should not apply online….some new regulatory frameworks, such as the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) represent a promising attempt at progress…Global Pulse is a United Nations initiative that explores how new, digital data sources and real-time analytics technologies can provide a better understanding of changes in human well-being and emerging vulnerabilities. Responding to legitimate concerns about privacy and data protection, in consultation with privacy experts, Global Pulse has developed a set of privacy principles which ensure transparency about the purpose of data use, protect individual privacy, acknowledge the need for proper consent for use of personal data and respect a reasonable expectation of privacy, while making all reasonable efforts to prevent any unlawful and unjustified re-identification of individuals.”
8. You might be the least trusting generation of citizens ever: “Studies indicate that many children and young people today have a hard time distinguishing fact from fiction online and as a consequence, your generation is finding it more difficult to know who and what to trust….As the technology to deceive improves, and verifying content becomes more difficult, the potential for lowered trust in institutions and social discord grows exponentially.” “Children have a right to an education that prepares them for the world they will live in, and today, this includes much improved digital and media literacy, critical thinking and weighing up evidence. The Director of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is including questions about distinguishing what is true from what is not true in the next round of the influential international PSA tests, seeing critical judgment as a global competency…. Moreover, we must work hard to build meaningful connections between young people and institutions, rebuilding trust, if we are to preserve democratic societies in the future.”