Statement by President Higgins on the 100th anniversary of the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child
Date: Wed 20th Nov, 2024 | 00:01
Statement by President Higgins on the 100th anniversary of the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child, 70th anniversary of World Children’s Day and 35th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
“Those of us who remember the end of the Vietnam War will recall the power of the image of a 9 year old girl, Phan Thi Kim Phuc, fleeing from a napalm attack. It was an image that went around the world and endured in people’s thinking. Most importantly, it fuelled comments of moral outrage and provoked an immediate call for an end to the violence of the war.
Today the world will mark three significant anniversaries for children’s rights – the 100th anniversary of the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child, the 70th anniversary of World Children’s Day, and the 35th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Recalling these moments of humanity and the taking of responsibility should ask those silent how they justify their indifference.
As we mark these important anniversaries, emphasising as they do the fundamental basic rights of every child on earth, one might ask how often youngsters must be photographed behind restraining bars, their vessels empty and their families starving at home as they wait for the results of the latest journey hoping for food.
As we recall the rights of the child, we think of all those children currently forced to live in such horrific circumstances of war and hunger across the world.
I express once again my horror at the horrific attacks carried out by Hamas on October 7th 2023, where children, including infants, were among those killed and taken hostage, with so many other young people targeted and killed at a music festival. The response we have seen, however, gives little recognition to the lives of civilians including children.
In Gaza, the images of empty food vessels are becoming ever more urgent, as more than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed. A recent report from the UN Human Rights Office shows that 70% of verified victims over a six-month period in Gaza were women and children – 44% children and 26% women. The age most represented among the dead were 5 to 9 year olds, with 80% of victims killed in residential buildings or similar housing.
Earlier this year, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child found that the armed conflict in Sudan has left 24 million children at risk of a generational catastrophe, with 14 million in dire need of humanitarian support amid reports of rape of civilians, including children, and the denial of humanitarian access affecting children’s access to basic necessities.
This week marked 1,000 days of the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine, where the lives of millions of children have been upended by war.
In the months following those horrific actions of October 7th, the UN report to which I have referred has found that children in Gaza have literally been starved to death. Even if Palestinians live through these horrific conditions, where they lived is being made unliveable – schools, hospitals and bakeries, a source of such particular importance which I remember from my own visit with others to Gaza in 2005 – now all destroyed. Such a rendering of an area uninhabitable is an action which in my view constitutes a special category of breach of humanitarian law.
What happens after the current war is now being discussed, with the threat of further illegal occupation and dispossession. Last month, a seminar organised by extremist settlers titled “Preparing to Settle Gaza” was attended by senior members of the Israeli cabinet where there was discussion on how Gaza could be reoccupied and one speaker spoke of how “Arabs will disappear from Gaza”.
As a Head of State of a country that is a member of the European Union, I appeal to my fellow Heads of State and the European Commission to make their voices heard against the violence which is destroying the lives of so many children in Gaza. If there is any doubt as to the blockages which are preventing food trucks from reaching those in need, an independent body should be appointed to verify the facts. We need to see human rights enjoy at least parity of esteem with trade. That is the European vision envisaged in the treaties.
On this day where those three significant anniversaries which show the best versions of humanity are being marked – the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child, World Children’s Day, and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child – may I suggest that these important events are best recalled by world leaders reacting to the appeals of the children suffering from starvation and violence in so many countries across the world and initiating the urgent measures needed to redress them. How many more children will have to appear behind bars with empty vessels? We need action now.”