Humanist Parenting: One Safe Generation
ONE SAFE GENERATION is a humanist initiative to create a more humane, ethical, and reasonable world by breaking the chain of inherited violence and fear. Our goal is to make it possible for one generation to grow up free of violence. In support of this goal of "one safe generation" we are advancing initiatives to combat violence against children in the home, in the community, and on the fields of war.
One Safe Generation: Violence Against Children on the Societal Scale
- In This Section
- Introduction
- Children as disproportionate victims of war
Introduction
UN Secretary-General's Study on Violence Against Children
Downloadable PDF's:
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (text available here )
Ratified by every country on Earth except the United States and Somalia, the convention took force on September 2, 1990. American opposition is led by political and religious conservatives and hinges on the convention’s prohibition of life imprisonment without possibility of parole and of capital punishment of minors. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is the first legally binding international instrument to incorporate the full range of human rights—civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights. In 1989, world leaders decided that children needed a special convention just for them because people under 18 years old often need special care and protection that adults do not. The leaders also wanted to make sure that the world recognized that children have human rights too. The Convention sets out these rights in 54 articles and two Optional Protocols. It spells out the basic human rights that children everywhere have: the right to survival; to develop to the fullest; to protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitation; and to participate fully in family, cultural and social life. The four core principles of the Convention are non-discrimination; devotion to the best interests of the child; the right to life, survival and development; and respect for the views of the child. Every right spelled out in the Convention is inherent to the human dignity and harmonious development of every child. The Convention protects children's rights by setting standards in health care; education; and legal, civil and social services. (From the UNICEF website)
- Guiding Principles of the Convention
- UNICEF Report on progress since 1990
Children as Disproportionate Victims of War
There are now over 250,000 child soldiers worldwide.Children account for two-thirds of those killed in violent conflict since 1990.
An estimated 20 million children are currently displaced by war.
Mortality among displaced persons is over 80 times that of the non-displaced.
SOURCE: UN Development Programme Human Development Report, 2005
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
UNICEF is the driving force that helps build a world where the rights of every child are realized. We have the global authority to influence decision-makers, and the variety of partners at grassroots level to turn the most innovative ideas into reality. That makes us unique among world organizations, and unique among those working with the young.
We believe that nurturing and caring for children are the cornerstones of human progress. UNICEF was created with this purpose in mind – to work with others to overcome the obstacles that poverty, violence, disease and discrimination place in a child’s path. We believe that we can, together, advance the cause of humanity.
International Rescue Committee (IRC)
The International Rescue Committee serves refugees and communities victimized by oppression or violent conflict worldwide. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein to assist opponents of Adolf Hitler, the IRC is committed to freedom, human dignity, and self-reliance. This commitment is expressed in emergency relief, protection of human rights, post-conflict development, resettlement assistance, and advocacy.
Article: Forced to Flee: Uganda's Young "Night Commuters"
Each night in northern Uganda, tens of thousands of terrified children leave their villages at dusk and walk to town to avoid being kidnapped by the Lord's Resistance Army—a brutal rebel force that has abducted more than 30,000 children to serve as soldiers and slaves in its 20-year war against the Ugandan government. Once in captivity, boys are forced to loot and burn villages and torture and kill neighbors. Abducted girls are routinely raped and become sex slaves or 'wives' of rebel commanders. All witness unimaginable atrocities and many do not survive.
Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers (UK)
The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers was formed in May 1998 by leading international human rights and humanitarian organizations. It has regional and national networks in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. The International Coalition has its headquarters in London.
We are a coalition to stop the use of child soldiers, both girls and boys - to prevent their recruitment and use; to secure their demobilization; and to promote their rehabilitation and reintegration. We work to achieve this through advocacy and public education; research and monitoring; and network development and capacity building.
The Coalition's goal is to promote the adoption and adherence to national, regional and international legal standards (including the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict) prohibiting the military recruitment and use in hostilities of any person younger than eighteen years of age; and the recognition and enforcement of this standard by all armed groups, both governmental and non-governmental.
-
Article: Child soldiers
With new weapons that are lightweight and easy to fire, children are more easily armed, with less training than ever before. Worldwide, more than half a million children under-18 have been recruited into government armed forces, paramilitaries, civil militia and a wide variety of non-state armed groups in more than 85 countries. At any one time, more than 300,000 of these children are actively fighting as soldiers with government armed forces or armed political groups.
-
Video: Children in the Ranks (4:51)
Human Rights Watch is the largest human rights organization based in the United States. Human Rights Watch researchers conduct fact-finding investigations into human rights abuses in all regions of the world. Human Rights Watch then publishes those findings in dozens of books and reports every year, generating extensive coverage in local and international media. This publicity helps to embarrass abusive governments in the eyes of their citizens and the world.