Did you know that today is World Children’s Day?
Today marks the anniversary of the adoption of the Convention of the Rights of the Child, a global commitment to protect children with a focus on providing what they fundamentally need to enjoy the innocence and wonder of childhood. With 196 countries supporting it, this is the most widely ratified treaty in history. Guess the only UN country that did not ratify it.
The United States.
All those years ago I watched Audrey Hepburn read the Convention on the Rights of the Child and I remember thinking to myself, “Why do we need a treaty for this? Why are we not prioritizing children first and foremost?”
Before you read on, make sure you click that link to hear the beauty of the convention as only Audrey can speak this universal truth. I promise you will be moved.
Everyone who knows me knows that I love Audrey Hepburn. A framed movie poster of Breakfast at Tiffany’s hangs in my office. I even had a pixie cut for years as I channeled my inner Audrey. She has been my idol for decades, and not just because of her movie star power. Sure, I knew her first as a film star (I might have been the only teenager in the 80s who devoured old movies and hated Star Wars.). I was introduced to Audrey through her movies, but I fell in love with her for her humanitarian work with UNICEF.
If I had had a daughter, her name would have been Audrey.
While I have seen all the Audrey Hepburn movies, read her biographies, and have stacks of coffee table books about her, I continue to be drawn to her as a fierce advocate for children. I have worked with the United Nations Foundation’s Shot@Life program for 14 years to advocate for vaccines and global public health. It’s a small but powerful connection to my hero Audrey Hepburn.
And now, I’m trying to continue to fuel her spirit when the world needs it most. Along with other women I admire, I founded a new organization to center children and youth in advocacy. It’s called Seen&Heard, and I would be ever so grateful for you to check it out. Our aim is to build a youth-powered movement to inform, influence, and implement policies that will help all young people grow up in a world where they can be safe, foster lifelong learning, and chase joy.
We have seen myriad examples of how young people are using their outside voices, as recently as yesterday when as 30,000 students staged anti-ICE walkouts in Charlotte. Children and young adults are our national treasure. Kids call out our grown up bullshit, relish transparency, operate in candor, naturally build community, and are creative problem solvers. Honestly, we don’t give them enough credit, and instead keep using them as props to patronize them politically.
Children are not pawns or profit centers. They are people. They are power.
The spirit of Seen&Heard aligns perfectly with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. And while seniors have coordinated, funded advocacy to champion their wellbeing, children do not. Think of us like AARP for kids. I am a card-carrying member myself. But I can’t help but think of all the resources I have as a 50-something woman while my sons have nothing to help them organize and mobilize for their generation.
“Contained in this treaty is a profound idea: that children are not just objects who belong to their parents and for whom decisions are made, or adults in training. Rather, they are human beings and individuals with their own rights. The Convention says childhood is separate from adulthood, and lasts until 18; it is a special, protected time, in which children must be allowed to grow, learn, play, develop and flourish with dignity.”
We can’t achieve our mission alone. Young people are facing a kaleidoscope of stressors that will harm their chance of a healthy future – vaccine misinformation, gun violence, mental health crises, loss of school funding, the list sadly goes on. We need their lived experiences and voices at the forefront to steer the ship with an inter-generational crew rowing in the right direction. Seas are rough ahead, but together we can seize the moment so all young people are seen and heard.
WWAD? (What would Audrey do?)
She would support Seen& Heard.