20 November: Universal Children's Day

Universal Children’s Day is celebrated annually on 20 November. The United Nations established Universal Children’s Day in 1954 as one of its earliest declarations. The UN General Assembly also adopted the Conventions on the Rights of the Child on the same date in 1989.

Universal Children’s Day promotes international togetherness, awareness of children worldwide, and the improvement of children’s welfare. UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, said ‘This year I wish to emphasise the importance of ensuring that the commitments made by the international community to the world’s children are extended to a group of children who are often forgotten or overlooked: those deprived of their liberty.’

As Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa said, ‘There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.’

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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