我孫子市国際交流協会

Date: Sat. June 24, 2006 10:00am-12:00noon
Place: Abista-Room No.2
Theme: What is the Convention on the Rights of the Child ?
Lecturer: Mr. Masato Komatsuzawa, General Manager, School Project, The Japan 　
Committee for UNICEF
Organized by: Abiko Board of Education
Co-Organized by: AIRA, Abiko PTA Council
Audience: 45 people

1.　A lecture was given on the current situation of children living in hard and miserable circumstances in numerous areas in the world, and on the supportive activities taken by UNICEF, United Nations Children's Fund, throughout the world.
A VTR shown told us that there are more than 130 million children in the world who are unable to go to school in spite of their wish to do so. Why can't every child go to school ?
In steep mountain areas in Nepal, for example, many children must do their duty to trudge down one hour to the bottom of a mountain stream to get water, and drag up the same rugged mountain trail for several hours with a jug filled with 15kg of water.
Seeing is believing: Mr. Komatsuzawa brought one jug filled with water for demonstration. Some audience volunteered to lift it up with all their strength, only to find its heaviness. In Nepal, these children are occupied with so severe chores that they can not afford to go to school. Gathering twigs and branches for boiling water is another painstaking work for them.
UNICEF has laid water pipes at various areas with cooperation of villagers.
A happy news was reported that, thanks to completion of waterworks, children were released from hard and time-consuming water carrying duties, enabling them to go to school.
Another cases follow. Small children have to briskly vend around among cars at dangerous roadways in a short time while traffic light stay red.
In some developing countries, once a war broke out, children are often to be summoned to the battlefield as boy-soldiers. Meanwhile, young girls are ordered to assist them by way of washing cloths, cooking, etc.
It is commonly known that safe drinking water is far more important item to be supplied than food in the disaster stricken areas or battlefields.
Many children were reportedly dead young before going to school in developing countries due to lack of chance to be inoculated, or malnutrition.
People in these areas tend to feel scared and to run away in the first inoculation trial by foreign persons. They must contact local people first through a reliable person like the chief of the community or priests in the area.

2. US Convention on the Rights of the Child
The said Convention entered into force in 1990 internationally, of which 192 countries and regions have concluded or ratified. The Convention, composed of 54 articles, stipulates the following 4 major articles to be complied with as child's rights, namely, right to live, to grow up, to be guarded and to participate.
The audience were divided into 6 subgroups and were asked to discuss about the articles and select what they concluded would be the most important one among the 54 articles.
Impressionably enough, none of group ever chose same items each other at all.
An all-children group exchanged views about what they wanted grown-ups to do for children.
Matching with the subject of the day, several families with their small children were seen among the audience.

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