The Business of Life with Dr King
Dr Ariel Rosita King brings on a variety of International guests from various countries, cultures, organisations, and businesses to talk about turning
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The Business of Life with Dr King
Dr Philip Jaffe: 100 Years of Children's Rights: Insights and Future Empowerment
Join us as we uncover the century-long journey of children's rights with our distinguished guest, Dr. Philip Jaffe. Ever wondered why the United States stands alone in not ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), yet still engages with its optional protocols? This episode promises to enlighten you on global progress and the peculiarities of international commitments as we near the centennial of children's rights in 2024. Dr. Jaffe shares his insights on the historical significance and the ongoing challenges we face in safeguarding the well-being of children worldwide.
We delve into the incredible legacy of Eglantyne Jebb, whose visionary efforts during the aftermath of World War I laid the foundation for Save the Children and the broader movement for children's rights. Her story serves as a powerful reminder of the enduring struggles faced by children in conflict zones today. We confront the harsh realities that one in six children still live near these volatile areas and that a staggering billion young lives are affected by abuse globally. These truths compel us to reflect on the society we aspire to build and the urgent need to protect our most vulnerable.
Looking to the future, we explore the pivotal role of youth, particularly girls and young women, as they rise as change-makers in a world fraught with global challenges. From the climate justice movement to social reform, the determination and agency of young people illuminate a path of hope and empowerment. This episode emphasizes the importance of cross-generational collaboration in forging new pathways and nurturing a brighter tomorrow. Listen in as we discuss nurturing agency and hope among the younger generation, fostering a landscape where they are empowered to make a significant impact.
The Business of Life
Dr Ariella (Ariel) Rosita King
Original Song, "Teach Me to Live one Day At A Time"
written, guitar and vocals by Dr. Ariel Rosita King
Dr King Solutions (USA Office)
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Teach me to live one day at a time, With courage, love and a sense of pride.
Dr King:Giving me the ability to love and accept myself, so I can go.
Dr Jaffe:And give it to someone else.
Dr King:Welcome to another day at the Business of Life. Today we have a very, very special guest that I would love to introduce, and his name is Mr Philip Jaffe, and he is going to speak on 100 years of children's rights. Hello, sir, welcome.
Dr Jaffe:Yeah, thank you very much for having me. It's an interesting proposition.
Dr King:Thank you. Would you be so kind to just give a brief introduction to what you do with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, since we have so many people that don't really know about that? Thank you.
Dr Jaffe:Yeah, sure, sure. So the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child is a so-called human rights body, one of several that sort of monitors human rights around the world.
Dr Jaffe:So you have bodies that deal with children, with persons with disabilities, women, discrimination against women, and so on and so forth, and all of these bodies are guardians of a temple. My particular Committee on the Rights of the Child is the guardian of the temple of the so-called Convention on the Rights of Children, and so the Convention on the Rights of Children is an international treaty that 196 out of 197 states or entities has ratified, and it's a binding treaty. So all these countries except one, the US, is bound to this treaty and has to. And the committee, basically its role, is to hold each of these states' feet to the fire. Basically, Are you implementing respecting children's rights in your country? And if not, these are the criticisms that will lob at you and you better get your country in order for your next review. So they have an obligation, each state to come back to us. But you know I fully anticipate your question or anyone else's Does that make a big difference for children's rights in the world? The answer is yes. Is it enough? No. In a nutshell, Thank you.
Dr King:I really appreciate that, and I understand that the one member state that has not ratified it has signed it though. So it's been signed, but it has not been ratified with the government, and I also understand that there are several optional protocols that they have signed, so I guess there is some accountability there.
Dr Jaffe:Would you like to?
Dr King:talk about the hundred. Oh sorry, go ahead sir.
Dr Jaffe:No, I was going to say that's one of these legal sort of paradoxes. Indeed, the US has not ratified the main protocol, but there are three optional protocols that exist and the United States has ratified two of them and accepted to be reviewed. On children in armed conflicts is one of them, and the issue of child prostitution and trafficking of persons, and it's a really weird situation, how can you sign up to an optional protocol and not recognize the one?
Dr King:the mother of the protocol.
Dr Jaffe:So that's the way it is, and jurists have never been able to explain it to me. But so your question 100 years? Look, 2024 is a really special year and again I want to keep my feet on the ground and I'll come back to this. But children are not doing well around the world. There are many, many very significant issues that affect their survival, their well-being, in the best of circumstances, but I do think it's important every now and then to take stock in what has been accomplished, to pat ourselves on the back for the good things that have been going on, and to resource and refocus our energies on what are the most urgent issues or the most important principles that we have to abide by in terms of children's rights.
Dr Jaffe:So 2024 is the centennial of children's rights, because 100 years ago, in September, was adopted in Geneva the so-called Declaration of the Rights of the Child by the League of Nations, which was the ancestor of the United Nations, and the adoption of this declaration really is a huge moment in human rights history, because it's the first intergovernmental treaty. That signifies that children's rights should be universal governance, of global governance. In those days there were less countries that were members of the League of Nations, but that children's rights apply the same way everywhere. And since then well, that's how we view it it's been history since then. Things have progressed in fits and starts, and not necessarily sufficiently, until we come to today, which is we have a convention which is a binding treaty, in the same spirit that children's rights are universal, except for the United States again, and that there are a certain number of rights that need to be implemented and monitored and respected and fulfilled by each state.
Dr Jaffe:So, 100 years again. A celebration in some cases, I think, is important to refocus, re-energ and set our eyes on the future. So that's why I'm so excited. This is a very special year, and so to give you, if it's okay with you, I'd like to give you a little bit of background on what this 1924 Declaration was and how it came into being. Is that good for you?
Dr King:Yes, please. Oh, that would be wonderful, thank you.
Dr Jaffe:So the story goes like this there was a very unusual upper class English woman by the name of Eglantine Jebb who had this social fiber in her and came from a family that was aware and engaged in helping less fortunate segments of her British society, who was particularly affected by the suffering of children in war suffering of children in war, and she was already quite engaged in bringing relief, or at least assessing what kind of relief children in the pre-First World War conflict, which was in the Balkans, what these children need. It was a very vicious war, and so that stuck with her. And then it so happened that there was a First World War, which is truly carnage, and millions of people died, and in the aftermath of the war there were whole populations that were starving, especially among the vanquished nations, in Germany in particular. And she came up with this idea that we have to help these children who are suffering from malnutrition, illness and so on and so forth, even though they are part of the vanquished nations. We need to do something, we have to bring humanitarian aid to them. And this was not an easy proposition when, you know, in Britain and France the winning factions were celebrating. And so she founded a really interesting NGO which is pretty famous nowadays called Save the Children, and that was the beginning of humanitarian work directed specifically at children. And she came up with a mission statement for Save the Children which is only five paragraphs long, is only five paragraphs long, and that was made its way all the way up to the League of Nations and was adopted as this universal declaration of the rights of the child. So it's a pretty amazing story.
Dr Jaffe:This happened in Geneva and I love this story for two reasons. First of all, because it was visionary I mean, this woman just came up with this idea and no one had thought about it before but also because she's such a special woman. And let me tell you a really brief story which I love about her. She was very active and stubborn and loud I don't think loud is not the right word, but you cannot contain her. When she was on a mission, she was there and she was once arrested in Trafalgar Square, I think it was because she was distributing leaflets and participating in some kind of protest, and she was given a fine and she said I don't want to pay this one, I'm going to contest it. So she went to court and argued in her own defense until the judge finally threw up his arms and said I give in, I'm going to fine you just five pounds, please leave. And the prosecutor actually offered her I'll give you the five pounds to pay for this, because she obviously refused to pay. So you know, she made a whole stink of Geneva. She was able to convince and persuade all these noble and men who were in the structures of power to go forward with this declaration. So I just think she's a very unusual woman and we need more people like her in this world today.
Dr Jaffe:So the point of this declaration is children in war. That's how it began, and if you think, 100 years later today, look around you. We're all crying and suffering for what is happening, not only for the children in Gaza and Lebanon, which are obviously front and center in the news, but for the children in Yemen, the children in Myanmar, the children in the Republic of Congo and other areas of the world that are less in the news. And so, in a way, what difference has 100 years made? It's a question, but I do have an answer to that. I think it's a positive answer, but I think it's also a moment to again just sit, collect our thoughts and wonder what kind of society do we want to live in if we treat children in such horrible ways? One in six children on this planet lives in an area affected by armed conflict. That's totally unacceptable. One in six so that's the story of the 100 years in a nutshell.
Dr King:Thank you, I had no idea that this one in six children live in conflict. That's an extremely high number and I think that if you don't look at just conflict between cultures, between people, even just conflict within our homes, so I'm just wondering how many children in general don't escape childhood without going through some kind of trauma, some kind of conflict, then how do we address that as a community? It seems to me that many children are experiencing one type of conflict or violence, one type or another within their homes.
Dr Jaffe:That's a really good point. So the one in six children affected by armed conflict, to be very precise, are children who live in or within 50 kilometers of a conflict area. So it's just a bit broader than perhaps the country itself. So it would be children in Poland with regard to Ukraine, and so on and so forth.
Dr Jaffe:children in Poland with regard to Ukraine and so on and so forth, but your, your point is very, very well taken. I mean, yeah, and I and I and and I'm not into, I'm not going to drown you in numbers, but there there's another number that really is so striking. Uh, so the, the, the um population of children in the world is probably uh, billion, 2.5 billion, somewhere in that range. 1 billion children are victims of abuse. That's sort of a really good estimate. So we're talking all kinds of abuse. It can be psychological, physical, sexual, but you put all that together 1 billion children are victims of some form of abuse, from the very worst to the very what some people would not consider significant abuse. But still, in my mind, for example, bullying or something.
Dr King:So that tells me that we as a human, as as humans all over the world, are not just prone to, but actually help to propagate violence. I mean, that's more than 50. So that also tells me that children are growing up learning how to do it, so then they themselves start to. I'm really startled, I have to be honest, I know a lot about children's rights and I've done a lot of studying but I had no idea it was 50%. 50% is enormous.
Dr Jaffe:It's enormous. But you take any country, and I'm gonna just for a second. I live in Switzerland, which is an obscenely rich country, and you wouldn't expect and I'm just taking a step sideways, but you wouldn't expect 10% of the child population to live in poverty. And it's not poverty that they're starving, but it's a form of lack of material means relative to the rest of the population. We have 20% of children who are experiencing sexual abuse in some form. They're not raped necessarily, but the different, lesser in quotes forms of sexual abuse that occur.
Dr King:Abuse is abuse.
Dr Jaffe:Abuse is abuse absolutely.
Dr King:And there's no small abuse when you're a victim of it. Very surprising, because that means either they're being missed or they're or they're purposely being disenfranchised, but it's shocking when you actually have the resources. So that's that's very telling, isn't it? And that's just one country out of what did you say?
Dr Jaffe:194 countries 193 countries, and then there are other entities Right.
Dr Jaffe:That goes to your point that you were saying what is it about our society that perpetuates structural forms of poverty or doesn't pay enough attention? And the same thing with child abuse. I mean, we have lots of prevention programs and nobody agrees with the children being abused in my country and in most countries, but we still can't really lower that percentage of children who are at risk and experience sexual abuse. We're not good at it yet. So our society is organized in a way that is not protective of children, even in what would be the most stable and under the best conditions possible. So imagine when it's worse the children are exposed to a lot worse, and so that's a sad state of our society. So, 2024 being such a symbolic year, with a few friends we had this crazy idea maybe delusional that we could write a new Declaration of the Rights of the Chinese, and we actually did that.
Dr King:I love it.
Dr Jaffe:You know there's nothing original or particularly triumphant about it, because the idea someone else had it a long time ago, so we're just copying. But we wrote this new declaration, which is still under wraps, there's still an embargo on it, but it's been catching on in confidentially and very high level circles. We're seeking endorsements of VIPs in different areas and it's going to be unveiled on November 20th, the day World Children's Day. And it's a new declaration because obviously things have changed since 1924.
Dr Jaffe:A lot has stayed the same children in armed conflict, unfortunately, but in those days we did not have the digital environment, we did not have the climate crisis, we didn't have biotechnologies that really well make you wonder what the identity of a child is and how he or she or they will consider who they are. It's a very big new world that needs to be untangled, and so we have this new declaration, and I've been very excited about working on this for intensely these past few months and the months to come.
Dr King:That's fabulous. Did you say that it's going to be unveiled on the 20th of November? Is that going to be at the United Nations in Geneva, or where exactly will that be unveiled?
Dr Jaffe:So maybe you've noticed I feel strongly about symbolism. So we're 100 years. It was the Geneva Declaration in 1924. So it's a 2024 Geneva Declaration and it's going to be carried by the authorities of Geneva, the city of Geneva, the canton of Geneva and I'm negotiating with the federal government now and maybe they'll endorse as well. But it's also going to be endorsed by, it has been endorsed by some of the upper echelons of the UN, some of the upper echelons of the UN, but the actual unveiling will be in Geneva and we're going to replicate a parchment of sort of the 1924. And we'll have signatures that echo the ones that existed in 1924. I mean, I'm getting into the weeds here, but the point is and your question, yes, the UN will probably work on. Well, look, I'm a dreamer, but I don't expect the General Assembly to put five minutes aside.
Dr King:But how about the Petit Palais or the beginning of the League of Nations, where actually now the committee actually works and usually admits sounds of children playing outside at a school? That's right next to the Petit.
Dr Jaffe:Palais. We're going to have it in a building that is an official city of Geneva, building where Save the Children was founded, so the symbolism is preserved.
Dr King:Fabulous.
Dr Jaffe:And my idea is also and I've been talking to some people maybe I think we'll certainly have a side event during the next Human Rights Council early next year. So it's going to make its way to different governments Wonderful. We're not as successfully stubborn as Eglanta and Jeb, but we have a common purpose and focus.
Dr King:I think that just the fact that we're starting to look at issues today that affect young people, that didn't affect young people in the same way 100 years ago especially digital issues and other ways that young people have their lives that are not the same as 100 years ago is really really important. So I think that's wonderful. I think it makes all the difference. To say, yes, this is the way it was 100 years ago is really really important. So I think that's wonderful. I think it makes all the difference to say, yes, this is the way it was 100 years ago. But you know, there are some parts of children's rights that we have not been able to address, and why don't we look at that and address it? So I'm really looking forward to reading it on November 20th.
Dr Jaffe:You may get an advanced copy, but back channel.
Dr King:Thank you. That would be wonderful. This is so exciting. So may I ask where do you see the future of children's human rights or children's rights? Where do you see it going? And I understand you're a dreamer, but that's what we need, isn't it? We need to dream and to put the bar high. So then, if we miss it, it's okay, but at least we know which way we're going.
Dr Jaffe:Yeah.
Dr Jaffe:So that's a really loaded question, because at my worst moments, I really don't have a whole lot of hope in the near term, near future, because it feels like the world is spiraling out of control states which still detain most of the power or have other priorities at this point.
Dr Jaffe:You see it even in well-to-do countries where social programs are cut. But I do think there's one area where I feel very, very hopeful, and some people will dispute this on principle, but I think that the children of today and the ones that are coming into being, are so savvy about who they are, about what they want for themselves, about they're so capable of using the tools and we're talking about digital environment here that we as or myself, as a not even a semi-geek are able to exploit that. They're really our best hope, that they're going to rise up in a way that's qualitatively different than children were able to in previous generations, and we saw this with the climate justice movement. We saw these huge protests and children boycotting schools, which I think is a great idea when you really want to get your views across to adults.
Dr Jaffe:To get your views across to adults, because that's like the worst revolution a child could start I mean refusing to be parked in a school where everything is compulsory, that is the biggest way to get at our you know our patients, but anyway.
Dr Jaffe:So that's where my hope lies. So some people feel strongly that children should not have that responsibility, that adults should be the ones that carve a more positive future for children. I think it's both. I think the children and Greta Thunberg said it herself very well. Greta Thunberg said it herself very well you know, even when we point at what you have failed at, you still don't take responsibility. I'm sort of paraphrasing her. So the adults who do want to take responsibility should and we have to, you know help the kids, and children and young people make a new pathway forward. So that's my ray of hope. And at the same time I do think that in these days of pushback of human rights and children's rights, women's rights, minority rights, indigenous people's rights, we have to sort of organize our defense and just wait for better times to redeploy. It's just the way the world goes forward and unfortunately and you know there's something really sad.
Dr Jaffe:You know, in a way I mentioned how the 1924 Declaration came into being. It was born out of carnage. That's what created this new impetus to see things a bit. The war that would end all wars, that's what they called it, because it was so horrifying. And so here we are in another era of carnage in many different ways around the world. Maybe there's something good that will come out without waiting too long and too many victims being sacrificed before.
Dr King:Yes, that's really amazing.
Dr King:I mean, you're looking like a phoenix coming out of the ashes, but I mean, I think what's interesting about that also is that the current United Nations was built on that.
Dr King:But I really do agree with you about children and young people, and I do think that they have an agency that we did not recognize before, and they're using it. They have not just opinions but responsibilities, and they're not waiting for someone to say would you like to come to the table. They're doing everything they can themselves to go to the table, to take responsibility and also to be heard, and I think that that is so different and they're all connected all over the world. I think the one thing I've seen in all the countries I've traveled to over 80 countries so far, but I would say in the last 10, maybe 15 years is that young people, there's a culture of young people around the world. That's the same, which I was extremely surprised about, and I think that the fact that they are so connected and they work with each other and they know each other in one way or another, it makes all the difference in the world with what they can do together.
Dr Jaffe:Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more, but I'd add another twist that I think is pertinent to our exchange. Yes, young people, but in particular girls and young women, they are really a powerful force that was never really reckoned with so far, and I say this with a smile because I'm rooting for them and in fact, in many different circles I have to say where are the boys? There are some, for sure, but I think that's also part of society's hope is this coming into being, of women taking their rightful place in society. And young girls? They're irrepressible, I find in many contexts that's wonderful.
Dr King:I want to thank you the time. The 30 minutes has gone so fast and I knew that it would. I want to thank you for being on the business of life podcast and it's been such an honor and such a privilege, and I want to thank you for everything that you're doing for all the children in the world and all of the people who care about children in the world. I know that it's through love of young people, your love of humanity, and I just want to personally thank you for everything that you do.
Dr Jaffe:Thank you, that's very kind of you and I have to send back the praise and thank you for giving me a platform to voice some ideas, but we all have a lot of work to do, so let's stay modest, but we all have a lot of work to do, so let's stay modest.
Dr King:Thank you, teach me to live one day at a time, with courage, love and a sense of pride Giving me the ability to love and accept myself.
Dr Jaffe:So I can go and give in to someone else. Thank you.
Dr King:Teach me to live one day at a time, with courage, love and a sense of pride.
Dr King:Giving me the ability to love and accept myself, so I can go and give it to someone else.
Dr King:Welcome to another day at the Business of Life. Today we have a very, very special guest that I would love to introduce, and his name is Mr Philip Jaffe, and he is going to speak on 100 years of children's rights.
Dr Jaffe:Hello sir.
Dr King:Welcome. Yeah, thank you very much for having me. It's an interesting proposition, thank you. Would you be so kind to just give a brief introduction to what you do with the United Nation Convention of the Rights of the Child, since we have so many people that don't really know about it?