Today is National Child Day

Today, November 20, 2007 is the 18th anniversary of the United Nations Convention of Human Rights, it is also National Child Day. UNICEF is concerned that Canada, for example, is not living up to the Convention's terms.

Eighteen years ago today, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child came into being. In Canada, at this present moment, there are 422,902 people who are 18 years old; this means they have lived under this UN Convention all their lives. UNICEF has talked with Canadians, including some young adults about the Convention and its effects; you can read what they have to say here. A recent CBC report states that according to UNICEF, Canada is not doing well when it comes to observing the Convention. For example: * About one in six Canadian children live in poverty, a number unchanged in a generation. * A child obesity rate of 26 per cent — one of the highest rates of obesity among children in developed countries. * Infant mortality rates at five deaths per 1,000, a figure unchanged in five years. * Canada has one of the highest rates of children in state care and in youth detention centres compared with other industrialized nations. * Mental illness among children has risen, with only 20 per cent getting treatment. The report offers the following recommendations: * Make the convention enforceable in the courts. * Develop a national action plan aimed at bringing Canada into convention compliance. * Hold a parliamentary review of recommendations from the UN committee on child rights and from the Senate's report on children. * Include everyone under 18 in child-protection legislation. * Develop a program to educate children and others on convention rights.