Since being first established in 1954 on 20^th November, World Children’s Day has been a way to endorse “international togetherness, awareness among children, and improving children’s welfare.” It is a time to celebrate the achievements and also demand action.

Children are our next generation of leaders, ambassadors, entrepreneurs and game changes. We must take good care of our children and ensure that we are doing everything in our power to keep them safe. November 20^th is a key date in children’s welfare – in 1959 the Declaration of the Rights of the Children and in 1989 Convention of the Rights of the Child was adopted by the UN General Assembly.

This year the United Nations held a one-day High Level Meeting of the General Assembly to commend 30 years since the convention was signed. However, this was not the only difference observed this year at the UN meeting. Instead of adults talking about children’s rights with no children to be seen, children did most of the talking and were seen in abundance. Millie Bobby Brown, the youngest ever Goodwill Ambassador and Actress asserted, “we want to do the talking.”

• Dante Vergara is an 11-year-old climate change activist from Chile who was heard at the General Assembly this year. He had one wish for the community he was speaking to – we must act now to protect our planet. “Very often, issues of the environment and climate change are postponed because there are more urgent things to resolve and I am concerned many adults continue to see things that way.” Vergara continues on to say that “Climate change is a very severe problem. Girls and boys have something to say because we are the ones who will inherit a sicker and sicker world. Without a healthy environment, all our rights are threatened.”

• Millie Bobby Brown spoke about bullying, harassment and what it feels like to be victimised. She reminded children and teenagers that they are not alone and people will listen when they reach out. She continued to talk about how she is not alone in demanding to be heard by officials, tens of thousands of young people are speaking up demanding that their point of view and solutions are heard. “Young people like her [Greta Thunberg] are shouting for world leaders to hear, to listen and to act.” In her speech to the General Assembly and the young people she says that they can be a part of the change too, that they can help ‘shape views into policies, programs, laws and into investments that keep children safe.’

It is up to all of us to keep children safe and bring the rights of children to all as they unfortunately are not automatic. Hearing the children of today speak up with such purpose, power and intent about dominating world issues gives motivation to push even harder to solve them and find resolutions to keep all children safe. It also gives us an insight into how world issues affect them. They are the centre of our global community – we must do everything in our power to keep them out of harm’s way and protect them from the dangers of the world.