Children’s Rights

The Declaration of the Rights of the Child is a document that lists a few rules about the way children need to live. Without the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, our world would be a mess.  Before the Declaration (more commonly known as the DRC) most children were forced to work in factories and on farms, never finished or even attended school, or were forced to join armies.  They were commonly thought of as little grownups.  The DRC changed this by telling all governments around the world that they should ratify it and then make laws in support of the children.

This is why the DRC is so important. There’s also the Convention, which is a document written by a group of people at the United Nations in 1989. It has up to fifty-four articles about the protection and lives of children around the world. The Convention is even more powerful and important then the DRC. Because it’s laws are enforced strongly, with strict discipline to anyone who violates them. Without the Convention, the DRC would mean nothing to the world. And even if it did, all children would be mistreated and misunderstood in many ways.

Here is a timeline about how it all came to being. In 1905 delinquent jails called Borstals were founded in England.  (Wikipedia, “Timeline of young people's rights in the United Kingdom.”) Borstals were supposed to drive juvenile delinquents away from adult prisons. After Borstals were founded, it would be illegal to send delinquents to regular jail. It was discipline, but if a child spends their childhood cooped up in a tiny stall in dirty cruel surroundings, they’ll never be reclaimed and after they’re freed, they’ll go straight back to a life of crime. And that’s what Borstals were trying to prevent.

In 1918, the government of England decided to donate money to infant welfare centers. (Wikipedia, “Timeline of young people's rights in the United Kingdom.”)  The government encouraged local authorities to pitch in with free medical care of children under five. This was also very important without it a lot of children would not get medical care, because sometimes they’re orphans or their parents don’t love them.

In 1923, after World War I, a British woman named Eglantyne Jebb drafted the first DRC. She started with a fundraiser for mistreated children in Russia. It was a success, but eventually the fundraiser ran out of money. But without hesitation she turned towards another issue. That was of course the DRC, because it would change things so that the world wouldn’t need help to nurse children and treat them righteously. (Wikipedia, “Eglantyne Jebb.”)

On November 26, 1924 the DRC was endorsed by the League of Nations as the world child welfare charter.

In 1932 whipping children boiled down to almost nothing. A young male adult was only permitted about six whips with nothing but a simple birch rod by only a constable.  (Wikipedia “Declaration of the Rights of the Child.”) So by then whipping a child was illegal.

In 1946 the SCIU (Save the Children International Union) joined the Union of child welfare forming the UN so as to make it easier for them to continue their work for children in need. If that hadn’t happened the UN wouldn’t have founded the Convention and the Convention must be the most important thing in children’s rights (Wikipedia “Declaration of the Rights of the Child.”)

The DRC was adopted by the UNC on November 20, 1959.  November 20 is now known as National Children’s Day.  (Wikipedia “Declaration of the rights of the child.”)

In 1989, the Convention on the Rights of the Child was held at the UN. The Convention lists over 50 rules in the name of children’s rights. The UN realized that the DRC wasn’t enforced enough and needed more rules. So they made the Convention as a stronger replacement to the DRC to tell the world how badly it was treating children and that they were going to need to fix it.

The USA, surprisingly, didn’t ratify the DRC. Nor did Somalia. Many people say that the reason that the USA didn’t ratify the DRC was because the USA thinks (and in some cases is) it’s too powerful to be bossed around. Some people also say that the USA didn’t need to ratify it because it provided so much protection for all people and culture had already began to change itself into child safe formations.  But the real truth about Somalia is that no one knows why it didn’t ratify the DRC and there are still children Somalis who suffer under the pressure of bad healthcare, unhealthy food, exploitation, and many other things.

To understand the concept of Children’s Rights, I interviewed two women who work in this area.  Margaret Wachenfield is Senior Policy Advisor for a part of the UN called Unicef.  She focuses on children and European Union governments.  Beth Morrow is a Lawyer and a Child Healthcare Advocate.  I’ve asked them some questions that I though others might ask and the these are their answers:

First I asked, “Why didn’t the US ratify the DRC?”

Morrow told me, “Well, my understanding of why the USA didn’t ratify is simply that the USA believes its laws are ideal, particularly its Constitution, and that it provides adequate protection to its citizens. In fact, the US goes around the world trying to help other countries adopt similar Constitutions. Also, the US doesn’t like to be told what to do by any other governments or political bodies, even the UN… Since the US is the strongest power in the world, it doesn’t have as much to gain by joining other countries through these types of measures… it just wants to follow its own rules.”

Wachenfield said, “…The US Constitution is a strong document and provides many human rights protections that are not provided by other countries’ laws. So, while the US children are protected from many horrible experiences by our own laws, Somali children are not so lucky. Therefore, to push the world to a higher standard, an international set of laws about human rights can do a lot.”

I asked, “what happens when the caretaker of an orphanage retires?”

Morrow responded: “In general, since being the caretaker of an orphanage is a job, that caretaker would be replaced by a new one who is hired through standard hiring practices. So, when the leader of an organization leaves their job, there is a Board of Directors who will do the hiring of a replacement.”

I then asked, “What happens if an adult or country violates one of these rules?”

Wachenfield told me: “If a country violates the CRC, other governments, their citizens, the children in their countries can criticize them. If the CRC has been adopted into the other country’s law, then someone might be able to bring a legal claim against the government. If a person violates the law, then it depends on how serious the violation is. For example, if someone hurts or kills a child, they may be sent to jail. If they don’t send their kids to school when they are supposed to, they probably won’t be sent to jail but will be required to send their kids to school or make sure they are learning and may have to pay a fine.”

I wanted to know: “Why aren’t children sent to jail?”

Morrow said: “Children are not sent to jail because it is felt that society is better served by trying to help a child who breaks the law learn from their mistake and get prepared to be a better adult. Children are not fully formed. Society is partly at fault for their flaws. And, thus, it is society’s job to off them a chance for redemption, education, and improvement. So, while they can be denied freedom (and sent to a juvenile justice facility), the job of that facility is to educate and improve their chances of becoming a productive adult.”  

Now that you know about the history of the DRC you probably want to know what the rules of the DRC were. Well here they are nice and clear.  In 1923 there were only 5 of them.

#1 A child must be given everything they need to develop.

#2 Needy children who are sick, orphan, delinquent, backward, or homeless must have someone who can love, feed, nurse, help, and reclaim them.

#3 A child in distress should be the first in line to get help.

#4 A child must live in a way that allows them livelihood and protection against exploitation.

#5 A child’s talents should be appreciated with consciousness that they should be devoted to the service of their friendly men.  (Wikipedia, Declaration of the Rights of the Child)

Now the Convention enlists over 50 laws about the rights of the child. But even though there are 54 laws, there are still many children all over the world who suffer from different things. Here are the 10 most important ones:

#1 A person cannot discriminate against a child no matter what family they were born into.

#2 All decisions concerning children must always be the best interest.

#3 All governments must protect children.

#4 Children have the right to parental guidance.

#5 Children have the right to life.

#6 All children have a right to and official identity.

#7 Children have a right to stay in contact with both parents if they are separated.

#8 Children whose families are scattered across countries or far spans of land should be allowed to travel between countries to visit each relative. (Children’s Rights and Responsibilities Leaflet, Unicef.) 

First the government started creating small laws in the name of children’s protection, then Eglantyne Jebb made the DRC, then governments and the UN started adding things on to make the DRC better, then the UN made the Convention. The world had been working very hard on improving children’s lives, yet governments continue to ignore these laws still, and the best we can do to prevent the suffering of children, is pitch in and help whenever we see there’s a chance.

 

 

Book Review "The Mysterious Benedict Society"

“Are You a Gifted Child Looking for Special Opportunities?”

As soon as young Reynard Muldoon, an orphan boy, sets his lonely eyes on those strange words, in the advertisements of a newspaper, he suddenly finds himself in the middle of a thrilling adventure full of puzzles, riddles, action, and mystery.

His mission is dangerous, but might also have been one of the best choices he’s ever made in his life. Before, he’d been orphan, but now, it seemed as though he’d never been an orphan before when he meets his good and true friends: Sticky, a runaway who’s got a mind like superglue and the disguised courage of a warrior; Kate, an optimistic acrobat orphan runaway who might seem too happy, but when the time calls for it you’ll never see anything but a grey frown upon her face; and Constance, who may seem crabbier than a crab, but has a heart as big as the sun that’s ready to break out from a secret safe inside her.

The one thing they all have in common (besides being brilliant) is that they all are in need of family. “Sticky was the only one to have a memory of family life. Was it worse for him, Reynie wondered, to have felt loved and then rejected? Or was it worse to have always felt alone?”

“The Mysterious Benedict Society” by Trenton Lee Stewart is about four children who go out on a dangerous secret mission after taking a test described in the newspapers.  A man named Ledroptha Curtain is transferring messages into people’s brains, and the mission of the Mysterious Benedict Society is to go off to a school stranded in the middle of an island and break the machine through which Ledroptha Curtain is transferring the messages. With a little help from their trusty companions Mr. Benedict, Number two, Milligan, and Rhonda Kazembe, they learn that the impossible is always possible when you’ve got a family.

This book isn’t much of an action-filled story. Yet at the same time, it is thrillingly wonderful! It’s like a brain quest through the whole book! And just at the very second you’re about to touch the answer to one of its mind-throwing riddles, it never makes you wait very long to figure out the small un-important riddles. Of which there are so many that when you close your book it’s literally like your mind has been thrown completely off the charts.  If you pay attention to family and friends, they’ll keep saying “Wow! You’re so much smarter now for some reason! How’d you figure that out so fast?” And the riddle answer to that is that “the answer lies at the inside of the back cover.” They’ll have to read the book to figure out the answer to that one!

Knitting: June Twist and Corkscrew Twist

How to make a June Twist

For a June Twist the only things you need are a pair of any sized regular needles and some any sized yarn. I like to use varying sized yarn because it really gives your needlework a sort of boost.

 

To make a belt:

 

#1 Cast on 10 stitches.

#2 Knit until there are only two stitches left on the needle.

#3 Take off the 1^st stitch of your 1^st needle, throw your yarn over to the other side, and put the stitch back on your first needle. The yarn should be coming from your 1^st needle now. I like to call this changing sides.

#4 Knit until you only have three stitches left and then change sides again.

#5 Repeat this procedure until there are five stitches left, change sides, and then knit until there aren’t any stitches left on your needle.

#6 Repeat that procedure until you have your desired length, and then bind-off. (See previous text to learn more about binding-off.)

 

To make a Scarf use the same procedure as a belt but instead cast on 20 stitches and wait until there are ten stitches left to knit them all back. The same procedure as the belt also goes for other things like straps, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to make a Corkscrew

 

To make a Corkscrew all you will need a pair of regular size six needles and size six yarn.

 

To make a belt:

 

#1 Cast on 10 stitches.

#2 knit off 2 stitches the change sides. (To learn more about changing sides see previous text.)

#3 this time knit off three stitches then change sides. Repeat procedure until there are only two stitches left on your first needle, then change sides and knit off all stitches.

#4 Repeat the previous procedure until desired length and the bind off. (To learn more about binding off see first text.)

Hiya! My names not Grace. whoever i am i like swiss cheez'. had a dream bou' kissin' a sheep wuns(+i liked it). MY NICKNAME IS GOOSE!!!!!!!!!! (don' wair it ou'. whu' goes roun' goes roun'.) i got a bear. 'is namez teddeh. his best friends are spots and getz. (dey sleep in 'de sam' bed.) I LOVE HARRY POTTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i reed it all the time. if u haven't red it ('dis i 'yuh last 'wunin.)

my worst fear of all is my dream 'bou dat' Snape dude 'tellin' 'arry a suspishz joke da' made 'm laugh. (made me 'wanna spy on 'm.) 

 

if u want 2 know where i get my cheese (im cummin 2 git u.) but if u want a hint (nex' time u step on a crack yuh' mama's back is gon' break.) but if u want 2 know where u can spy on me 2 find out (den' yuh' bettah' 'av' sum goot plans o' wuh yuh' last wurdz'll be.) SO LAY OFF MY CHEESE MOZZARELLA THIEVES!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

  

Well at least we can look on the bright side and say it shows that I've got photographic intentions! I know. Stupid pictures. Well they're for my French dictionary and dad told me they'd be a great aspect to my blog which gets aproximately six viewers so it really won't be able to go to far with gossip. And this post doesn't have a real topic so I might as well make one up right now.

Last week we took a car trip to Frejus. It wasn't a very nice town but the structure was beautiful. It was a mixture between Park Slope, Paris, Nice, and Aups. The structure had roots from Park Slope but almost exactly the same as Paris but when you looked at it from a far you could almost be sure that it was Aups. But the weather was fantastic like Nice.  J'ai une question. Have you ever been to a place similar to that?    

google girl

Uuuuuuuum j'ai une question. When did any of us first discover the internet? Et une question un plus. Did we discover it because of just randomly clicking about expecting some magic technical fairy to appear on the screen and grant us three wishes? Or was it some kind of old gossip that some random little kid had just reset all of his parents' passwords and deleted all their work papers looking for the meaning of this unfamiliar one-dimensional open-close square with a multicolored screen? 

Well I know this sounds like pure nonsense but I discovered all this technological crud when my mother introduced me to the one and only website that would prevent me from jumping around her in peppy little circles asking her over and over again when the next block-party was. Doesn't surprise me it worked. It's a pretty darn addicting website. The kind that makes your parents say: "I never knew what help brain-cell killers could be to a pair of full-time job parents with a child who never knew what patience was!" And I quite agree. One's brain could be completely dead and still dying and never come out of that game-zone. 

Je voudrais plus de bon-bons. Par ordonnance du ... tout ce que vous appeler n'importe qui qui lit ceci doit me faire parvenir dix livres de bonbons un morceau. Et j'ai un secret public. Et ce secret, c'est que je suis l'aide de Google Translate pour l'ordre ca.

    

i love little guys?

You may have read my relatively new post. If you haven't you probably should. 

Remember Finn and Laura? Well were here for six days. Six days of chomping down one thing after another. And I think that's why when you meet Finn your first thought is whatever meals he's carrying on his clothing. Whenever he's in public he's always eating something.

Speaking of, today Abigail and I took a walk into town looking for candy, and being a Sunday the  only to find was the Ferme Petit Casino and some restaurant employees eating their profits. It's what they do in France during rainy Sunday afternoons. Same thing in in the burrow but usually there are still some stores open. In France you won't find a thing.

Once Abby found out about all this Ferme crud she threw a... well let's just say she was upset. And on the way home I wasn't much help. She told me to shut up but I only asked what I should shut up. And... well you probably have the big picture already. And you do not want to hear the rest. 

Yesterday we left Finn and Aunt Laura at a hotel in Nice. I'm not exactly sure which one. For if you want to live in Nice you know you'll be forced to live in a Hotel. That means there are too many hotels to keep track of. And for a fact Nice is the home to the fanciest hotel in the world.

I know this is a little off-the-topic but I recently wrote a letter to Senator Charles Schumer requesting the prices on recycled packaging and the products inside that their prices should be lowered. And that homeless people who use food stamps are only allowed to buy and eat products that come in recycled packaging. Dear Senator Schumer,

 

My name is Grace Lienhard and I am ten years old. I know that I may seem a bit young to say this, but I have a very important request involving food stamps. I also know that America is having some difficulties with food stamps because my father is a lawyer. I hear that when homeless or poor people’s food stamps should be working, sometimes the cashier says they are not. But I am sure that we are able to find a way around that. And I am sure we would with great ease.

 

This is an environmental situation. I am requesting two things. Number one is the prices being lowered on foods stored in recycled packaging: just enough so that they are slightly lower then the prices on the products sold in packaging that was never used before. I want that because re-used things do not have as much value as never- used ones. And that may seem like a bad deal, but recycled things work almost as well as freshly made ones. And I don’t know about the rest of the United States, but I think that recycled things work very well indeed.

 

Number two is that people who use food stamps should only allowed to buy and eat food that comes in recycled packages. I think that this environment is in great danger right now. And as you may have read before, I requested that recycled things should be cheaper. So now when packaging companies find out that homeless people and everyone else is buying recycled packaging, it’s only normal that they will want to make their packaging products out of recycled material.

 

You may have a few counter explanations for me, but I have good feedback for some of them.

 

First of all I believe that recycled products and newly made ones are at war right now. Eco-lovers like me are buying or would like to buy things in recycled packaging. But the newly made products are cheaper, which means that everyone else buys them instead. So I thought up this plan and made a way around that. As you may have seen in the text above that I request making recycled products and their packaging cheaper. And you may think that the cheaper things are the less those companies are going to want to make them cheaper. But bear in mind, who wants to buy the more expensive products anyway? So therefore, if recycled things are cheaper the companies that make them get more money. Because no one is going to buy the expensive things.

 

Second of all I know you are thinking at this very moment that I am far too young to make important laws like this one. And you are correct. But I was never making a law in the first place. I was only requesting it. And neither me nor my father (who is a lawyer) knows any law against that. I am sorry for bothering you about this if there is. But I am certain that there isn’t.

 

Third of all I forgot to tell you that my family and I are taking a sabbatical year in France. And if there is a problem with that I will accept that without any excuses. But I am certain that it would be fine with all of us if we have to spend a few months back home to make sure the job gets done properly if we’ve convinced you.

 

Fourth of all this is all fine with my parents. And I am not trying to be conceited, but I consider myself very independent and mature. Or if you put it in other words you could say I am a small adult except for the fact that I am not quite over the age of twenty. Or you could say eighteen if you consider that as the line where you are not a teen any longer. And I told you I was ten because I never tell lies except when needed. So you could say that you can count on me.

 

 

Cordially,

 

 

Grace Lienhard

 I only showed you this because I want a little help. I'm doing a fund raiser for recycling 

companies so that they can buy better cleaning supplies for the recyclables. As well as other things like fixing tools. And if any of the readers that are reading this blog could help out in any way that would be just great. It's O.K if you can't.