Posted on 23 November 2023
On 20 November, World Children’s Day was celebrated globally, commemorating the UN General Assembly adopting the Rights of the Child in 1959, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in New York on Monday that today an estimated “400 million children – or about 1 child in every 5 – are living in or fleeing from conflict zones.” This year World Children’s Day falls as violence in the Gaza shows little sign of slowing, where almost half of the population are children and over 5,500 children have been killed since October 7.
Russell also addresses the other threats facing children today, including poverty and inequality, public health emergencies and in particular, the global climate crisis. “Globally, more than 1 billion children currently live in countries that are at ‘extremely high-risk’ from the impacts of climate change” she says. “At no time since the CRC was adopted 34 years ago have children’s rights been in greater jeopardy.”