Compostela promotes a book on children’s rights

The book “Children’s Rights. A Shared Vision” of the Institute of Marist Studies of the Pontifical University of Salamanca was presented on 13 December 2021. Jacinto Escudero and Manuel Mendoza, editors, have collected the opinions of forty-five experts on the subject of the Rights of the Child, a broad vision of the Convention approved by the United Nations on 20 November 1989. The authors are of thirteen different nationalities.

The book aims to contribute to children being seen as persons with rights of their own; rights of which children themselves (and not adults) are the real protagonists. At the same time, the text emphasises the need to equip children with the necessary tools to become citizens who know their rights and duties.

The then Provincial of Compostela, Br. Tomás Briongos, attended the presentation. He stressed that minors are not passive subjects in terms of the rules that dictate their rights, “but must be confronted as equals”. To this end, the consideration of children’s opinions and the implementation of initiatives in schools such as, for example, the one developed by the Marist Brothers, “Stand up, give your opinion and participate”, which is “fundamental for the recognition of children’s rights and of children themselves as active subjects”, he underlined.

Jacinto Escudeiro, one of the editors, stressed that future teachers have a very important responsibility to ensure that children’s rights are put into practice. Therefore, the book is intended to be a necessary resource for education professionals: “Currently, there are 450 million children in the world living on less than £1.90 a day. Originally, everyone agrees to comply with the rights of the child, but it is a different matter whether they are fulfilled”, he insisted.