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• World Vision: We need to measure up to be equal to the demands of the Twenty-first Century so that children can fully enjoy and experience their rights.
San José, Costa Rica, November 20th.- Today, the General Assembly of the United Nations commemorates the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
The Convention on the Rights of the Child is one of the instruments with the greatest impact on social transformation, particularly on the promotion, defense and diffusion of the rights of the child and adolescents.
One of the most important achievements of the Convention is the recognition of the children as subjects of rights, protagonist of their own development, and even more, not another possession of their parents and families.
The convention demands society to act in the best interest of the children, as well as to recognize their rights to express their own opinion, to be heard and to be protected. The Convention was ratified by 192 countries, and due to this fact, it has become the most universally accepted human rights instrument.
In spite of the progress over the last 20 years, the fundamental rights of millions of children in the world are still not respected. For this reason, this year, World Vision as part of the Global Movement for Children (GMC), renews its individual and collective determination to takes steps to ensure that the spirit of the Convention reaches deeper in our society, into our daily lives, and into the actions and budgets of our governments.
World Vision, who heads the GMC secretariat, recognizes and affirms the centrality of children for the development of our countries and emphasizes that in this sense, we still have a long way to go.
By ensuring that children, adolescents and youth constitute almost half of the population of our continent, Corina Villacorta, Vice-president of World Vision for Latin America and the Caribbean, prompts that “we cannot continue to neglect their well being and human right to a decent life and the realization of their potential, as if they were secondary or nonessential issues. Children and adolescents deserve to be afforded the highest priority in governmental and public investment policy promoting sustainable human development in our countries. It is impossible for us to imagine overcoming the unequal and inequitable characteristics in the Latin America and the Caribbean region, which is the most extreme in the world, without deliberately investing in enforcement of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This is a strategic policy decision of the State”.
The violence, the abuse and the lack of access to health services and education puts in risk the future of millions of children in Latin America and the rest of the world. “We need to regain our ability to get angry and indignant, and rouse ourselves to urgent action to confront violence against children and adolescents. We need to better understand the causes of these problems, which are genuinely complex and perverse, and jointly pool all of our State/Civil Society capacities, efforts, resources, and the active participation of children and adolescents themselves to find solutions” said Corina Villacorta, World Vision´s regional representative.
By making a call to “measure up, to be equal to the opportunities and demands of the Twenty-first Century so that children and adolescents can fully enjoy and experience their rights”, Corina Villacorta finally fostered the merging of efforts to guarantee, in a special way, the full exercise of rights to health through a World Vision´s initiative that after being presented to the United Nations headquarters in New York, will be extended to another five years.
Moved by the cruel reality affecting the health of millions of children around the world, World Vision has set the goal of saving the life of two thirds of the 8,8 million of children dying every year for causes that could have been prevented. The ultimate goal of the campaign is that every family has access to preventive health care and education for the most vulnerable children that are still healthy in their communities.
For more information visit: http://www.childhealthnow.org
If you are not yet familiar with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, download it here:
+ Convention on the Rights of the Child
See what the Regional Vice-President of World Vision, Latin America and the Caribbean had to say in representing the Global Movement for Children to distinguished authorities of the OAS and other international organizations regarding the 20 years of the Convention on the Rights of the Child:
+ Corina Villacorta, Regional Vice-President of World Vision, Latin America and the Caribbean - Lima, Perú 2009
Information and contacts
World Vision
Latin America & Caribbean Regional Office
Amanda Rives
Senior Adviser Public Policy, Advocacy and Positioning
amanda_rives@wvi.org
Paula Sáez Riquelme
Media and Web Content Relations Officer
paula_saez@wvi.org
Camilo Palacios Ávila
Regional Communications Coordinator
camilo_palacios@wvi.org
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