2019 marks the 40th anniversary of Defence for Children International (DCI). Symbolically, 2019 is also the year the world celebrates the thirty years anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
Defence for Children International was born on the 5th of July 1979 in Geneva. Since then, it became a worldwide Movement present across 5 continents.
DCI was granted consultative status at the United Nations in 1983 and then became the Coordinator of the NGO group co-drafters of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, until the treaty was adopted in 1989. The UNCRC is now the most universally ratified binding international treaty the world has ever agreed on. The Convention changed perceptions about children from passive objects of care and charity to full human beings with a distinct set of rights. But a treaty, no matter how universal, is only a piece of paper until it is effectively applied. Since the convention was adopted, DCI has focused on its implementation through lobbying and direct actions.
We chose to celebrate the 40 years of DCI and the 30 years of the convention together with children worldwide. We organised a Children’s Rights Award: “Hear my Story, know my rights”. Through which DCI gave children around the world the platform to express themselves artistically, with a variety of media; paintings, drawings, videos, poems and songs that highlight their ideas, opinions, views, and hopes regarding children’s rights. Such interactions with children in their communities encourage a better understanding of their rights enshrined in the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, more specifically the articles of the Convention on which DCI focuses its work.
Hundreds of children around the world submitted their artworks which were reviewed by an international jury made up of child rights experts; Philip Jaffé, member of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, Anne Grandjean, Child protection expert at UNICEF, Nigel Cantwell, Founder of DCI, and Christine Cornwell, member of DCI Advisory Committee, and Alex Kamarotos, Executive Director of the DCI.
