Sri Lanka celebrates Children’s Day and International Day of Older Persons:

Children and elders deserve a better deal

Tomorrow is a special day for all you children out there. October 1 is the day when Sri Lanka celebrates Children’s Day. It is also when the International Day of Older Persons is commemorated around the world. Sri Lanka would be organising many events to mark the twin occasions.

If a child is given love, he becomes loving ... If he’s helped when he needs help, he becomes helpful. And if he has been truly valued at home … he grows up secure enough to look beyond himself to the welfare of others.

- Dr. Joyce Brothers
(Good Housekeeping, August 2010)

Stay a child while you can be a child.

-Stephen Sondheim
(Into theWoods)

Nothing you do for a child is ever wasted.

– Garrison Keillor
(Leaving Home)

The brightest light, the light of Italy, the purest sky of Scandinavia in the month of June is only a half-light when one compares it to the light of childhood. Even the nights were blue.

- Eugene Ionesco
(Present Past / Past Present)

Children and elders are polar opposites, but the world will be a much duller place without them. They make the world more beautiful, more vibrant. We all are first children and then become adults, but we can never forget the joys of childhood. A joyous childhood, unfortunately, is not a reality for most children in the world today. They are subjected to untold hardships from birth onwards and millions of children in the Third World do not even live until they are five years old. Children in the developed world, however, have the best of everything and issues such as obesity have become major problems in those societies. The elderly too have their own problems. Thanks to developments in healthcare, most people can live to a ripe old age with certain conditions and diseases, which once proved to be fatal, being easy to treat now.

This has however turned into a problem for most countries i.e. how to care for a greying, non-productive population. Sometimes referred to as ‘population ageing’ this is a problem that many countries are grappling with.

Our thoughts and actions on children and elders should not be limited to October 1. There are things we can do at individual level against the exploitation of children and older persons. Parents, teachers and religious leaders must also guide children on the correct path. Children and elders around the world deserve a better deal, not just tomorrow, but every day of the year.

Children’s Day around the world

The Children’s Day is celebrated on different days in many places around the world. International Children’s Day is celebrated on June 1 while Universal Children’s Day is on November 20. Sri Lanka celebrates Children’s Day on October 1.

The International Children’s Day had its origin in Turkey in 1920 and later in the World Conference for the Well-being of Children in Geneva, Switzerland in 1925. The reason for selecting June 1 as International Children’s Day is not clear: one theory is that the Chinese Consul-General in San Francisco (USA) gathered a number of Chinese orphans to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival in 1925, which had fallen on June 1 that year, and also coincided with the conference in Geneva. Children’s Day was first celebrated worldwide in October 1953, under the sponsorship of the International Union for Child Welfare in Geneva. The idea of a Universal Children’s Day was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1954 to protect children working long hours in dangerous circumstances and allow all children access to an education.

The event takes place on November 20 every year and was established to encourage all countries to institute a day, firstly to promote mutual exchange and understanding among children and secondly to initiate action to benefit and promote the welfare of the world’s children. It was also chosen as the day to celebrate childhood. November 20 is also the anniversary of the day the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959.The Convention on the Rights of the Child was then signed on the same day in 1989, which has since been ratified by 191 states.

Universal Children’s Day is currently observed on November 20 in more than 100 countries. International Day for the Protection of Children, observed in many countries as Children’s Day on June 1 since 1950, is said to have been set up by the Women’s International Democratic Federation during its November 1949 congress in Paris.

International Day of Older Persons

The UN International Day of Older Persons is celebrated annually on October1 to recognise the contributions of older persons to society and to examine issues that affect their lives. The theme this year is ‘Longevity: Shaping the Future’.

It is a special day for older persons or senior citizens all over the world. In many countries events that focus on senior citizens are conducted at this time of the year while the media also highlight various issues facing the elderly and discuss contributions they have made to create a better society.

The World Health Organization (WHO), which is the UN’s directing and coordinating authority for health related issues, and other groups have been actively involved in promoting public awareness and attention on the International Day of Older Persons.

Discussions are centred on topics such as ageing populations and the provision of adequate healthcare for aged persons; volunteer work; social care; and ways to be more inclusive of older persons in the workforce.On December 14, 1990, the UN General Assembly declared October 1 as the International Day of Older Persons, following up on initiatives such as the Vienna International Plan of Action on Ageing, which was adopted by the 1982 World Assembly on Ageing and endorsed later that year by the Assembly. The International Day of Older Persons was observed for the first time throughout the world on October 1, 1991.

In 1991 the UN General Assembly adopted the United Nations Principles for Older Persons. In 2002 the second World Assembly on Ageing adopted the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing to respond to the opportunities and challenges of population ageing in the 21st century and to promote the development of a society for all ages.

Convention on the Rights of the Child

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is a human rights treaty setting out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children. The Convention defines a child as any human being under the age of 18, unless specified differently by the domestic legislation of states.

Nations that ratify this convention are bound to it by international law. Compliance is monitored by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which comprises members from different countries. Once a year, the Committee submits a report to the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly, which also hears a statement from the UNCRC Chair and the Assembly adopts a Resolution on the Rights of the Child. Governments of countries that have ratified the Convention are required to report to, and appear before, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child periodically to be examined on their progress with regards to the advancement of the implementation of the Convention and the status of child rights in their country.

Their reports and the committee’s written views and concerns are available on the committee’s website. The UN General Assembly adopted the Convention and opened it for signature on November 20, 1989 (the 30th anniversary of its Declaration of the Rights of the Child) in New York. It came into force on September 2, 1990, after it was ratified by the required number of nations. Currently, 193 countries are party to the Convention, including every member of the United Nations except Somalia and the United States and the new nation of South Sudan. Somalia had announced in late 2009 that it would eventually ratify the Convention. The Convention deals with child-specific needs and rights. It requires states to act in the best interests of the child. This approach is different from the common law approach found in many countries that had previously treated children as possessions, ownership of which was sometimes argued over in family disputes.

The Convention acknowledges that every child has certain basic rights, including the right to life, his or her own name and identity, to be raised by his or her parents within a family or cultural grouping, and to have a relationship with both parents, even if they are separated. The Convention obliges states to allow parents to exercise their parental responsibilities.

It also acknowledges that children have the right to express their opinions and to have those opinions heard and acted upon when appropriate, to be protected from abuse or exploitation, and to have their privacy protected, and requires that their lives not be subject toexcessive interference. The Convention also obliges signatory states to provide separate legal representation for a child in any judicial (legal) dispute concerning their care and asks that the child’s viewpoint be heard in such cases. The Convention forbids capital punishment for children.