One hundred years of children’s rights and our vision for the future

Melanie Simmonds, head of Save the Children Cymru

A century ago, to this very day on September 26th, 1924, world leaders at the League of Nations adopted the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child drafted by Save the Children’s founder, Eglantyne Jebb.

The charter stated that every child has fundamental rights to life, development, assistance, relief, and protection. This was the first international recognition of children’s rights which later inspired the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, a landmark human rights treaty.

But despite progress over the last century, today, children’s rights are being eroded and inequality is growing. Their voices are disappearing from the policies that shape their world.

Catastrophic conflicts for children, from Gaza to Sudan to Ukraine, rising child poverty and the frightening reality of the climate crisis all pose a huge threat to one hundred years of gradual and hard-won gains.

Acute hunger

One billion children globally are living in deep poverty, facing acute hunger, inequality, and discrimination. One child in six is growing up in conflict, losing their homes, loved ones and in many cases their lives.

Nearly every child worldwide is impacted by at least one climatic hazard, despite children being the least responsible for the climate crisis.

Nearly one out of every three children in Wales lives in poverty. Families tell us that living in poverty makes it hard to buy food and pay for electricity, leading to debt and stress. Bad housing, expensive childcare, and unstable jobs make things worse. Families often feel alone and don’t trust the help they get.

This is not right.

In Wales we have a government publicly committed to improving the lives of children living in poverty. We were the first country in the UK to legislate to give due regard to the UNCRC when exercising all its functions. Soon after, we saw the introduction of the Seven Core Aims for children, one specifically relating to poverty.

Objectives

The Child Poverty Strategy for Wales 2024 has outlined Welsh Government’s priorities and objectives for reducing child poverty. However, we have recognised that as well as the valuable plans it contains, there are vital elements missing.

We, along with other leading charities and organisations in Wales believe it does not match the gravity of the situation facing children and young people in Wales. We’ll continue with others, to call on Welsh Government to publish a comprehensive Action Plan with clear targets and measurable milestones on their commitments on reducing child poverty as proposed.

We want to help children and families in poverty by making sure their voices are heard when decisions are made. We want services to be able to work together better and for more financial help to reach the pockets of families.

Over the next five years as we launch our new strategy, we’ll continue to work with various organisations to fight child poverty and be led by the voices of children.

We’ll push the Welsh Government to keep their promises and make decisions based on real experiences. We’ll learn as we go and share what we find to ensure we all work better together to benefit children.

We’re ready to respond to emergencies quickly – both globally and here in Wales – helping children and families with things they need most at that time. We’ll keep playing a key part in the Disasters Emergency Committee to raise funds and support humanitarian crises. In unexpected crises, we’ll adapt our resources to help, working with businesses and local groups to provide needed funds and items.

We want to see a Wales where all children can flourish. Standing up for children’s rights is our history, present, and future and supporting children to claim their rights is just as urgent and relevant today as it was a hundred years ago.