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Wednesday September 8, 2010
20th birthday of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child
Press Release – 20.11.2009 20 years after in the European Union, Children become author/actor of their rights. The European Social Action Network, E.S.A.N., is active for more than 20 years in the field of the defence of the Rights of the Child through diverse actions carried out at grass-root level by its members across 14 Member States. This year to celebrate the 20th birthday of the UN Convention, European children and youngsters put into practice the notion of young people author / actor of solidarity by conceiving an educative journey addressing 12 of their rights. This exhibit guides the visitors through entertaining and artistic presentations on the journey from the basic rights of the individual until the emancipation and the empowerment of the young people towards more citizenship and solidarity. The exhibit presents good practices carried out by or with children and youngsters all over Europe and is composed of 4 main areas dealing with Rights related to vital needs, Rights related to Child protection, Rights related to the access to culture and equal opportunities, and finally Rights which ease the live in society as well as the link between generations.
The prototype of this journey was presented on 5th -6th October 2009 at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on the occasion of a seminar about the respect of the Rights of the Child. The first success was to gather a very diverse public (social international, educative and hard-working state employees, associative persons in charge of local, national and European level, lawyers, students, children and young people) to exchange on their views and practices of the promotion and the defence of the rights of the child to draw some recommendations which will be taken back in an European educational charter. But beyond this challenge, the children knew how to give to the adults a beautiful example of citizenship and solidarity, an experience which the adults left revivified and rich in lessons.
This journey is a useful tool to demonstrate that the UN convention is not merely a paper but can be translated into concrete actions producing good results. It is why ESAN is starting a campaign to help this journey to be presented in several EU towns with all support Children may deserve to expand this good initiative. ESAN therefore calls on for any support towards the achievement of this goal. More information is available from the ESAN secretariat in Brussels, esanbxl@gmail.com or Liliane Cocozza ( liliane.esan@skynet.be ) or on the ESAN website www.esan.eu . Press Contact : Christelle Claes-Maes, 00.32.2.643.29.83, esanbxl@gmail.com |
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