Twentieth Anniversary of Children’s Rights Convention
Do you know what the acronym C.R.C. stands for? Ask your child or children. They may know it stands for Children’s Rights Convention. It’s the most universally accepted human rights instrument but twenty years after its introduction, the CRC is still a work in progress. News five’s Delahnie Bain reports.
Delahnie Bain, Reporting
In 1990 Belize became the fifth country to sign on to the Children’s Right’s Convention (C.R.C.). That was the start of years of work to ensure that our children are aware of their rights and that those rights are protected. So what exactly is the role of the C.R.C.?
Pearl Stuart, Executive Director, N.C.F.C.
“They are articles that are spelled out particularly for children to let children know that they have rights. I’m sure all that we have seen in the news in the past where children are affected; they are the most vulnerable of our citizenry. Because they’re young and are indeed vulnerable they may feel that it’s a dead issue, nothing can happen, I’ll just have to be abused or I’ll just have to be hungry or I’ll have to be uneducated but that not so. This convention shows them that they have rights.”
The National Council for Families and Children (N.C.F.C.) was formed to oversee the implementation and upkeep of the C.R.C. They have since formulated those goals into a National Plan of Action.
Pearl Stuart
“The C.R.C. actually helped to create the N.C.F.C. to make certain that those rights were being adhered to. Here at N.C.F.C. we teach the children about their rights, we go to schools, we go to train the trainers so that the teachers can in fact train the children on their rights. On this of occasion of the twentieth anniversary I would like to wish the children of Belize a very happy children’s day. I want to ensure them that the National Committee for Families and Children are working very hard on their behalf. We are addressing and implementing the targets laid out in the NPA, which should come to fruition by 2015.”
Stephanie Daniels Moody, Prog. Coord, Product Education/Advocacy, N.C.F.C.
“There are six areas that they felt we needed to work on. Those are health, education, child protection, the family, culture and HIV/AIDS. So each area of attention has specific targets or goals that we’re working towards. N.C.F.C. oversees the implementation of this plan, but the actual implementation is done through different ministries and different NGOs and even international organizations that are all working on behalf of our children.”
Two persons that have benefited from the events held under the CRC are Kevin Forrester and Aisha Pollard, who are now young adults, but spent much of their childhood advocating for children’s rights.
Kevin Forrester, Former Member, Children’s Advisory
“There was the cultural expo, that was around 97 or into 2000 but definitely there was the children’s elections that was held here in Belize in 1998. After that I was nominated among the committee to attend Canada where they were going to have their own children elections and so I went like as an ambassador for Belize to observe their children’s elections over there. After that it was just different activities. Each year we tried to do something conscious, we tried to do something along the child rights. It helped to build my sense of responsibility, my sense of duty. Even today I have many positions in which I am leading, as a teacher, as a councillor, as a youth personnel in my executive that I sit on now; it built my leadership qualities.”
Aisha Pollard, Former Kidorama Member
“It has had a positive impact on my life. For instance, I am a second year student of UB studying social work. So I kinda get hooked inna di whole system and being a children right’s activist and stuff I just want to do more and so I decided to take on the social work program.”
To celebrate the twentieth anniversary, the N.C.F.C. is pushing one of its primary objectives… increased child participation. Program Coordinator for Product Education and Advocacy, Stephanie Daniels Moody, says they are doing that through a video competition.
Stephanie Daniels Moody
“The C.R.C. talks a lot about participation and so we wanted to give our children an opportunity to participate in this discussion about their rights by allowing them to be a part of a video competition. We’re asking them to use their own creativity to tell us how they feel their rights are being respected in Belize. We’re asking entries to be one minute long, it has to be an original concept and it’s basically for them to tell us how well we are doing the work that we’re supposed to be doing because I can talk for days on end about how well the N.C.F.C. is working to protect the rights of children but I think it would be interesting to hear what the children have to say about how well we’re doing our work.”
Delahnie Bain for News Five.
The competition is open to young people under the age of eighteen and entries can be in any language; individually for high school students and out of school youth; or collectively with a school submission. Deadline is November thirtieth 2009. First place gets one thousand dollars; second place six hundred; and third gets three hundred.
