An open letter to the world’s children
., Dear children of today and of tomorrow, Thirty years ago, against the backdrop of a changing world order – the fall of the Berlin Wall, the decline of apartheid, the birth of the world wide web – the world united in defence of children and childhood. While most of the world’s parents at the time had grown up under dictatorships or failing…, 1. You need clean water, clean air and a safe climate, Why I’m worried: It sounds obvious that all children need these basics to sustain healthy lives – a clean environment to live in, clean air to breathe, water to drink and food to eat – and it sounds strange to be making this point in 2019. Yet climate change has the potential to undermine all of these basic rights and indeed most of the gains made…, 2. One in four of you are likely to live, and learn, in conflict and disaster zones , Why I’m worried: Children have always been the first victims of war. Today, the number of countries experiencing conflict is the highest it has ever been since the adoption of the Child Rights Convention in 1989. One in four children now live in countries affected by violent fighting or disaster, with 28 million children driven from their homes by…, 3. We must make it OK to talk about mental health, Why I’m worried: If we believed everything we read about teenagers today, and the images portrayed in television and film, we could be forgiven for thinking they are a wild, antisocial bunch. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. The evidence actually shows that teens today smoke less, drink less, get into less trouble and generally take…, 4. Over 30 million of you have migrated from your place of birth , Why I’m worried: Migration has been part of the human experience throughout history. For thousands of years, children and families have left their place of birth to settle in new communities in search of educational or employment opportunities. Today is no different. We live in a mobile world in which at least 30 million children have moved across…, 5. Thousands of you will officially never exist, unless we act, Why I’m worried: Every child has a right to a legal identity, to birth registration and a nationality. But a quarter of you born today – almost 100,000 babies – may never have an official birth certificate or qualify for a passport. If your parents are stateless, from a persecuted or marginalized community, or simply if you live in a poor remote…, 6. You need twenty-first century skills for a twenty-first century economy , Why I’m worried: There are more than 1.8 billion young people between the ages of 10 and 24 in the world, one of the largest cohorts in human history. Too often, they lack access to an education that will prepare them for contemporary job and business opportunities – giving them the skills and outlook they need for a twenty-first century economy.…, 7. Your digital footprint must be protected , Why I am worried: The world wide web was born in the same year as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, 30 years ago. Today it has radically changed the world and reshaped childhood and adulthood alike. More than 1 in 3 children globally are thought to be regular users of the internet, and as this generation grows up, that proportion is set…, 8. You might be the least trusting generation of citizens ever, Why I’m worried: Every child has the right to actively participate in their societies, and for many of you, your first experiences of civic engagement will be online. However, the majority of you will grow up as natives of a digital environment that is saturated with misinformation and so-called ‘fake news,’ which undermines trust and engagement…
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