Although the UN chose November 20 to celebrate Children's Day, the date of the first Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959, it gave the territories of the world the option to designate their own special place on the calendar, and in most of the Spanish autonomous communities we celebrate this day on April 15.
Surely, the restrictions imposed by the pandemic will make it difficult to organize activities in the classrooms, the space par excellence for our little ones, the framework where a good part of their development and socialization takes place.
But, although the bulk of the activities take place between the walls of the centers and through the network, the media will shake our consciences on this day with data on children from all over the planet affected by wars, diseases, natural disasters, malnutrition, exile, orphanhood... To recall a recent case, that of the 5,000 minors evacuated with their families due to the eruption of the La Soufriere volcano in Saint Vincent, in the Eastern Caribbean, a few days ago.
Organizations such as Save the Children, UNICEF or the Red Cross, occupy the first line of defense of the fundamental and priority right of minors as people, which is life. Therefore, collaborating with them is a good way to contribute to the great task of protecting our future on Earth.
But, in addition, there are many other factors with an impact on the level of child welfare in our environment, where there are no armed adolescents or forced marriages at an early age, but there is a lot of inequality, a lot of discrimination and many adult problems that affect the little ones, sometimes with indelible consequences. A scenario that has been aggravated by the socio-economic crisis derived from the impact of Covid-19.
It is unquestionable that when the family nucleus is in economic difficulties, the rights of children can be compromised: the right to a standard of living adequate for their physical, mental, moral and social development; the right to the enjoyment of the highest possible level of health and to services for the treatment of diseases and the rehabilitation of health; the right to education; the right to be protected from all forms of violence, negligence, abandonment or exploitation; the right to rest and leisure, to play, to recreational activities and to participate freely in culture and the arts.
All of them, vectors of the construction of healthy individuals and generations committed to the collective, to the general interest and coexistence.
For all these reasons, from the Administrations, the social and educational areas work hand in hand with the economic, job creation, fiscal departments... Our society requires a polyhedral and extended attention, with the certainty that families, in all their diversity and circumstances, constitute the territory where minors cover their material, relational, affective and identity needs. Protecting today is protecting tomorrow.
Lucía Olga Tejera, deputy of the Socialist Parliamentary Group
