Today is the International Day of Children and Adolescents, here is the message from the Captains Regent of San Marino
Message from the Captains Regent of the Republic of San Marino, Maria Luisa Berti and Manuel Ciavatta, on the occasion of the International Day of Children and Adolescents, which is celebrated today, Sunday 20 November 2022.
“International Children’s Day is celebrated on 20 November each year.
The date coincides with the day on which the UN General Assembly adopted, in 1959, the Declaration of the Rights of the Child and, in 1989 – exactly 30 years later – the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a Convention that the Republic of San Marino ratified in 1991.
The Convention affirms the universal right to a happy childhood and reaffirms the prohibition of all forms of exploitation of children and adolescents.
The number of States which, through the ratification of the Convention, are legally bound to respect the principles affirmed therein is very high. however, still today, we too often witness the denial of these principles. In many parts of the world, the most basic rights to survival and protection are still being trampled upon, with children continuing to die from poverty, chronic malnutrition and from diseases that could easily be prevented and treated.
Children deprived of their childhood and their freedom because they were ‘enlisted’ in war zones. Refugee children, forced to flee – often without their families – to gain a life expectancy that, just as often, remains so. Children hired by crime or exploited in child labor because they were born in contexts of economic and educational deprivation. Children used as bargaining chips, forced into unwanted and early marriages, who often die during pregnancies and births – the result of these forced marriages – condemned to live every day in a nightmare when they should still be playing carefree. Boys and girls who are denied the right to health, education and harmonious growth; children who are denied play and the possibility of dreaming.
All of these are dramatic realities, not always so distant from our countries, where, among other things, abuses and more subtle types of violence risk undermining the integrity of children and adolescents, trust in themselves and in adults and compromise the healthy development of their personality.
Around the world, the voices of children and, above all, adolescents are growing louder and demanding better living, social, health and educational conditions. Young people are asking for a planet that can continue to host them and future generations, a planet where the use of resources is sustainable and the environment is protected. They are asking for peace, an end to violence, to ongoing conflicts, to political, cultural, religious divisions which destroy communities, make
tearing apart families and putting their lives in danger every single day.
On this occasion we must ask ourselves: are we really listening?
This year, in particular, the theme is ‘Inclusion, for every child’. Inclusion for every child. An invitation to all member countries of the United Nations to share a positive message of equality and inclusion for every child and adolescent.
The capacity for inclusion depends above all on awareness of the value of diversity. But can diversity be understood without first having made the theme of equality your own?
Our ‘being human’, our ‘being a person’ makes us equal. And being equal means having the same rights: to live, to be respected, to feel free, to express one’s thoughts, to seek one’s own way of feeling fulfilled and to be able to dream, above all, as children.
On the other hand, equality does not mean uniformity or homogenization, nor the absence of differences. Rather, it means equity and respect for others in their diversity: that is, guaranteeing everyone the same opportunities, considering and valuing particularities and differences.
Thus conceived, diversity becomes a fundamental value and an enriching factor, in life, in work, in culture, in politics and for society as a whole. Because the diversity of each feeds on the value of the diversity of the others.
For this reason, only by eliminating all forms of discrimination and protecting diversity can we aspire to peaceful coexistence. This is even more true when it comes to children.
The elimination of discrimination between children and adolescents of different civilizations and ethnic groups, of different religions and cultures, of different origins, social conditions, opportunities and abilities is the essential prerequisite for a truly inclusive society, in the awareness that any prejudice is harmful for its harmony.
Since today’s children and adolescents are tomorrow’s adults, the future of our country, and of the entire planet, will depend on them. From the way they will be educated to respect each other and to welcome everyone’s diversity, from how they will be allowed to live and grow in contexts that guarantee equity and equal opportunities, for true social and civil inclusion.
And it is, above all, in the family and in the school that every child embarks on his path of personal and educational growth to become an adult.
It is evidence that the weakening and progressive deconstruction of the family in civil society has corresponded to a sharp increase in discomfort and needs human and childhood education. An aspect that must be absolutely controversial, putting the family, which is the primary owner of the education of the children, back at the centre of the attention of every political direction, national and international.
Together with the family, the school is, and will always remain, the place of excellence in which each child begins his own process of knowledge, growth and growing up, and learns to exercise critical sense, the spirit of observation personal and, consequently, the rejection of prejudices and the ability to compare with the others.
A school that, especially in the last decade, has done a job immense and exemplary precisely to make educational inclusion a reality concretely, in the same context in which children and teenagers spend the most part ample of one’s day.
Furthermore, our thoughts go – and it could not be otherwise – to everyone as well children and young people with disabilities, their families and all people who, individually – or united in association – they get close to them with friendship and help concrete. There is no more eloquent inclusive act than those who live their lives alongside them, to guarantee them the same conditions and life opportunities as any other child.
We conclude this message by inviting everyone to reflect: who owes be more educated about inclusion?
Let’s observe how easy it is for a child, especially at an early age, spontaneously approach diversity – inside and outside the school – and live the diversity of companions with extreme naturalness. For younger children diversity brings with it many sensations that are special for them: acceptance, openness, aggregation, curiosity and, therefore, inclusion. They are, if anything, the conditioning of adults, the consolidated and stereotyped social and cultural structures, which are not promote the inclusion of every child.
It’s up to us adults – parents, teachers, educators, representatives of society Civil and Institutions – draw an example and teaching in this, just come on children, and translate it into good daily practices that allow for later stages growth of the child and adolescent to maintain this availability to hospitality throughout its maturation and formation process.
We, therefore, have the task of conveying this message of openness and enhancement of each person, right from childhood, with actions and daily behaviors and – as exponents of the institutions – with the implementation field of all possible initiatives – legislative, political, social – in favor first of all of the family and of the school, so that this virtuous circle is consolidated.
Every child who feels included will be an adult who will in turn pass on the culture of inclusion for tomorrow’s children and, finally, the culture of peace.
How we do this will demonstrate in practice which type of adults we are and want to be and what kind of society we want to build.
To the adults, therefore, this great responsibility”.
The Captains Regent of San Marino
Maria Luisa Berti and Manuel Ciavatta