About Universal Children’s Day

Take ACTION

• Begin organizing your school or community NOW to celebrate children, their voice, and how they are supported on Universal Children’s Day!

• Seek out local human rights platforms, such as committees and commissions, to learn and work together toward directly supporting children’s rights in your community.

• Write an op-ed to your local paper about Universal Children’s Day and how your community can include the voice of children.

• Shift your perspective by considering how issues and events directly affect the lives of children in your city or community. For example, how are children impacted by major upheavals and breakdowns in support networks as a result of foreclosure and evictions due to the housing crisis?  What happens to children during times of conflict or natural disaster?

• Every child should be seen, heard, loved, and taught. Promote the needs and rights of children on Universal Children’s Day and every day by participating in the Love Me, Teach Me campaign.

• Take the Pledge and engage in the Decade for Childhood, a 10-year initiative that supports a global conversation about children, childhood, and child rights by sharing knowledge and considering best policies and practices.

• Consider joining childhood professionals, educators, and advocates at the next Global Summit on Childhood in 2014. Learn how Global Summit on Childhood 2012 sought to raise public awareness about challenges facing childhood today.  How can you contribute to this event in support of child rights?

Nearly half (approximately 1 billion) of the world’s children live in urban areas and are often affected by the stresses of rapid urban growth, such as inadequate infrastructure, resources, services, and housing.

In 2010, nearly 8 million children died before reaching the age of 5 from pneumonia, diarrhea, or birth complications.

Approximately 1,000 babies per day are infected with HIV through mother-to-child transmission.

Children who are impacted by the forces of migration, particularly those without documents, are marginalized and suffer from exclusion due to their inability to access public services, legal protection, health care, and education.  The effects of abandonment and displacement also leave them socially and emotionally isolated.

A weak economy and rising food and fuel prices have a devastating effect on children living in poverty, where 50-80 percent of family income is spent on food—leaving very little for housing, education, and medicine.

An estimated 22 to 50 percent of the 2.5 million people worldwide who have been trafficked into forced labor are children.