Universal Children's Day

November 20th is Universal Children's Day, commemorating the anniversaries of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959) and the approval of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), which establishes a series of rights for children, including those related to life, health and education, the right to play, family life, protection from violence and discrimination, and the right to have their opinions heard.

The first reference to this date appears in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which implicitly recognized the rights of children as belonging to the human race. This led, first, to the creation of the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) by UN members and, later, to their commitment to specifying the specific rights of children.

In 1954, the United Nations General Assembly recommended that all countries highlight a day on the calendar to dedicate to the promotion of children's rights, organizing activities to promote their social well-being.

Five years later the Declaration of the Rights of the Child was approved and in 1989 the Convention on the Rights of the Child and two optional protocols for its development came into force, which were updated in 2000.

Although each country chose a different day to celebrate it, the date of publication of this text is taken as a reference for its international celebration, hence November 20 is the International Day of the Child.

Archive footage:
Ember Steffen (Colombia): "Children and adolescents must have an important voice in the peace process"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-QIRWPrGEU