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National Child Day 2011 – November 20
Canada’s national ‘Child Day’ is held November 20 each year, as enacted in Bill C-371, otherwise known as the Child Day Act, by the Parliament of Canada in 1993.
It commemorates the United Nations adoption of two landmark documents concerned with the human rights of all children and youths. On Child Day, Canadians honour our children and The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of The Child on November 20, 1959, and The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child on November 20, 1989.
The Convention spells out the basic human rights to which children (under the age of 18) everywhere are entitled. The purpose of Child Day is to promote awareness to Canadians about the Convention.
It is also a day to support Canadian children’s rights by voicing your concerns about Canadian children’s rights violations to the politicians of Canada and to educate our children about their rights and responsibilities.
The Convention obliges governments to ensure that they invest in children to the highest possible standard, make decisions in the best interests of children, and reach children without discrimination or inequity.
Internationally, Canada was among the founders of the United Nations and has a long history of support for human rights. Canada played a significant role in drafting the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child between 1979 and 1989, and in the Optional Protocols related to child exploitation and to children in armed forces.
On November 20, Canadians will commemorate National Child Day. This is a day when people across the country take time to celebrate Canada’s most important resource: our children. This year’s focus is on Article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child; “The Right to the Enjoyment of the Highest Attainable Standard of Health.”
Article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child states:
1. States Parties recognize the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health and to facilities for the treatment of illness and rehabilitation of health. States Parties shall strive to ensure that no child is deprived of his or her right of access to such health care services.
2. States Parties shall pursue full implementation of this right and, in particular, shall take appropriate measures:
(a) To diminish infant and child mortality;
(b) To ensure the provision of necessary medical assistance and health care to all children with emphasis on the development of primary health care;
(c) To combat disease and malnutrition, including within the framework of primary health care, through, inter alia, the application of readily available technology and through the provision of adequate nutritious foods and clean drinking-water, taking into consideration the dangers and risks of environmental pollution;
(d) To ensure appropriate pre-natal and post-natal health care for mothers;
(e) To ensure that all segments of society, in particular parents and children, are informed, have access to education and are supported in the use of basic knowledge of child health and nutrition, the advantages of breastfeeding, hygiene and environmental sanitation and the prevention of accidents;
(f) To develop preventive health care, guidance for parents and family planning education and services.
3. States Parties shall take all effective and appropriate measures with a view to abolishing traditional practices prejudicial to the health of children.
4. States Parties undertake to promote and encourage international co-operation with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of the right recognized in the present article. In this regard, particular account shall be taken of the needs of developing countries.
By Kim Levie, East Kootenay Child Care Resource and Referral
