Children worldwide interpret the Universal Declaration of Human Rights upon its 60th Anniversary
“Such positive outcomes and children’s response to this contest highlight not only the importance of children's rights but also their participation as a key aspect of the international human rights framework.”
-The Embassy of Canada in Brazil
Children sleep soundly under the vital protection of mosquito netting. By John Morima of Kenya.Giant mosquitoes press against the netting, eyeing the children in their bed. But the cloth is carefully drawn, thread by thread, and the children's right to protection is respected. In another picture, a child is borne away from Zimbabwe by boat, an illegal border crossing made in the search for a home where basic rights may be met. Both colourful, both as awkward and piercingly direct as children's pictures often are, yet they could scarcely be different. I am safe. I am not safe.
In 1948, the United Nations came to an understanding of human rights, and the General Assembly of nations adopted it as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 1989, world leaders decided that children needed a special convention of their own, and this became the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
As part of the December 2008 60th anniversary of the UN Declaration celebrations, the Canadian International Development Agency and the Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada joined efforts in organizing worldwide children's art contests on the theme, "Children have rights."
Leaving Zimbabwe for a life where basic rights may be met. By Rodney Sibanda of Zimbabwe.
The most striking images from each contest were displayed at Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada headquarters in Ottawa. Minister of Foreign Affairs Lawrence Cannon opened the exhibition on Human Rights Day. Reporting from Guatemala, one Embassy described how “the depth of some of the pieces, by small children with an amazing level of maturity, the brilliant colours of others, and the artistic talent shown by yet others made it very hard for the judges to take a decision.”
The distillation of approximately one thousand submissions from around the world, the collected images are hard to look at as many are eyewitness accounts made the more appalling by their appearance in crayon. Other pictures represent an awakening to the plight of kids in other walks of life.
In Ghana, Yenuitie Caleb Chamond Duti tackles the right to play and rest along with the right to choose your own friends
“You have the right to play and rest”
Our embassies around the world often provided (then donated) the art supplies necessary for the contest. In a typical event, the Embassy in Estonia invited children into the Embassy and gave them the necessary art supplies and snacks. Officers described the rights in the Declaration and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child for them. "You have the right to play and rest" caught six-year-old Kaisa's ear. Her drawing, an Embassy favourite, became a gift to the local UNICEF branch. In Ghana, one artist depicted children "selling [goods] on the street and not in school" (“You have the right to a good quality education”). Many kids involved in the contests had never seen crayon pencils before.
Working with the Right to Play organization, the contest in Indonesia found 30 children in the province of Aceh to participate. Afterwards, everyone received a certificate of participation, with the winners receiving dictionaries (kamus). Many embassies displayed submissions within their own walls. The submissions from kids in the Dominican Republic (apart from the Ottawa-bound winners) were displayed in a local museum. Bosnia and Herzegovina’s 100 submissions, sourced from six organizations working with disadvantaged children, appeared in Sarajevo's International Peace Center Gallery.
An unflinching portrait of the crime and violence within a Kingston community. By Oshin Gregory of Jamaica.
“You have the right to know your rights!”
In Kenya, Nairobi’s African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) gathered artwork by rehabilitated street boys and borderline children. The Canadian High Commissioner Ross Hynes visited the children at the AMREF Dagoretti project. Over 200 former street children and their parents attended a ceremony of appreciation. The District Officer thanked Canada for its role during the Kenyan post-election violence in the country, and called on Canada to continue its support.
In Mexico, guests of honour at that exhibit’s inauguration were the young Mexican artists and several partners of the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI.) For the contest, Canada's Mexican partners taught human rights and helped kids interpret their rights in art.
In his remarks, then Ambassador to Mexico Guillermo Rishchynski read some comments by the children.
Children have different ways of living but we all play the same. One may be French, another African and another Otomí. All want a world with flowers and without garbage.
Francis Mwangi of Kenya illustrates the right to fully participate in the cultural activities of the community.
Rarámuris children have the right to be taught our native tongue, our culture and traditions.
We have the right to be respected and to have our decisions taken into account.
Our parents should not mistreat us. We don't deserve to be hit or verbally abused but to receive affection and love. When we are mistreated we are very unhappy and we should be happy. It's our right.
The pictures and comments were from street kids, kids living with HIV, at risk youth, and indigenous kids, among others.
“You have the right to be alive”
Working in partnership with local NGOs, Canada often succeeded in bringing word of the Declaration to children in rights-deprived situations. Malaysia's Compassion Home is a good example. Compassion Home takes in 'displaced' children (abandoned, orphaned, abused or neglected kids), single moms or unwed mothers in difficulty, battered women and widows. Another example, the Dotito Development Association works out of the Mashonaland Central Province, a highly volatile area of Zimbabwe. There, freedom of worship and the right to health were the subjects of winning entries.
Jasmin Beckova of Bosnia and Herzegovina pictures a place where all children are happy.
In Guatemala, 70 children from ages 7 to 16 contributed to the contest via Grupo Ceiba and Casa Alienza. Both organizations work for the betterment of vulnerable children's lives, even so far as opening primary school classes to children up to 16 lacking in elementary education. About 40 kids affected by armed conflict in Colombia interpreted the Universal Declaration, with the assistance of the Centro Integral de Rehabilitación de Colombia, Plan International and the Norwegian Refugee Council.
The alarming reality is that these children lack basic rights like the “right to be alive,” to live at home, and to be not hurt or mistreated. Wrote the Embassy in Bogota:
The drawings are demonstrations of the ability of children to observe everything around them, in their families, schools, country. The wants and needs of a society that continues to live the consequences of armed conflict are starkly exposed.
From education to empathy and determination
For other children, the children's rights art contest was an awakening to the plight of their unluckier peers, whether in their own lands or elsewhere. At the Norwegian schools that participated in the contest, human rights are already part of the elementary school curriculum. In five public schools in Brasilia, Brazil, the contest also found a population of children and adolescents both aware of their rights and with faith and hope in humanity.
A child and her family enjoy the right to travel from one place to another. By Amanda Angélica Muchuch Sanic of Guatemala.
Two schools in Denmark, the Copenhagen International School and the Bernadotte School, participated in a project involving about sixty 9- to 10-year old children. The Bernadotte school’s project went so far as to provide case studies of disfavoured children to the students. After learning about kids in situations of war, domestic violence or child labour, with their sensibilities awakened, the Danish children produced engaged and gripping portrayals of children in inhuman conditions.
The children’s artworks exhibited their “solemn awareness that living conditions for children around the world are radically different, [and] an ardent willingness to level out these differences and a general wish to enhance the quality of life of the disfavoured” (from the Embassy of Canada in Denmark).
Many embassies used the children's art contest as a springboard for other rights related activities. Venezuela: Human rights concert event in a lower income zone of Caracas to commemorate the 60th anniversary. In partnership with the AfriCaracas.
Other anniversary activities:
Venezuela: Human rights concert event in a lower income zone of Caracas.
Guatemala: Seminar to commemorate the 60th Anniversary, with the participation of Louise Arbour, who served as High Commissioner of Human Rights from 2004 to 2008, in collaboration with the Embassy of France.
Brazil: 3-DVD collection of short animated films based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Embassy has organized workshops on children's rights with the DVD set and has received considerable interest from schools and NGOs wishing to use the material. Produced by the National Film Board in collaboration with UNICEF International among other partners.
Venezuela: New human rights defenders award to be given by the Universidad Central de Venezuela's Human Rights Centre. In his remarks, then Ambassador to Venezuela Perry Calderwood addressed two cases of human rights abuses in Canada: Japanese Canadians during the Second World War and residential schools for Aboriginal people. He wanted to illustrate how a country can tackle head-on its own past mistakes, to learn from them and ensure they are not committed again.
