A Declaration for Childkind
MyDeclaration In our founding era, our nation’s youth often were front and center in the Revolutionary war effort. They even put themselves in harm’s way to enlist and serve as soldiers, most often, as drummers in the thick of battle, helping convey critical signals to American troops that could prove decisive. Yet our youngest are rarely part of […]
Declaration of Dependence by the Children of America in Mines and Factories and Workshops Assembled (ca. 1910)
Editor’s Note: Journalist, Presbyterian minister and child labor advocate Alexander J. McKelway (1866-1918), who was instrumental in early efforts to enact legislation to address child labor reform, crafted this concise “declaration of dependence” — really a declaration of children’s rights — sometime between 1910 and 1913, though he claims its true authors are all of America’s […]
Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child, 1928
Editor’s Note: A precursor to the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child, this 1928 document was adapted by the members of the League of Nations. It is unprecedented in that it sets forth for the first time in a formal international accord that children have rights and that adults have responsibilities towards assuring […]
Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)
Editor’s Note: This convention, a binding treaty endorsed by 176 nations (referred to in this document as “state parties”), was adopted by the UN General Assembly on the 30th anniversary of 1959 UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child. Convention on the Rights of the Child U.N. General Assembly (12 December 1989) with AnnexThe General […]
American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man – 1948
Editor’s Note: Adopted in April 1948 at the International Conference of American States in Bogota, Colombia, this document represents the first attempt on the world stage — coming out eight months before the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations — to set forth and enumerate the rights, and duties, of each […]
Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959)
Editor’s Note: Approved by all 78 member states of the United Nations, this declaration is a first in the formal global agreement on children’s rights and the principles on which they are based. This declaration is a follow-on to the unprecedented 1924 declaration by the League of Nations (see image) endowing children the world over with […]
