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Children's Art Exhibition on Human Rights

 
Speaking Notes for David Kilgour
Secretary of State (Latin America and Africa)
at the Launch of the Children's Art Exhibition on Human Rights
National Arts Centre, Ottawa
Friday, October 2, 1998

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls:

It gives me great pleasure to welcome the winners of the National Arts Centre contest as Canada's newest ambassadors to Latin America and the Caribbean.

That is exactly what you are. By entering this contest, and by being part of this tour through the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, you are sharing with other children what the Universal Declaration of Human rights means to you. More importantly, you are sending a message to the world that human rights are important to all children and all children need to be made aware of their rights.

Il s’agit d’une année importante pour le Canada et le monde. Comme vous le savez, elle marque le 50e anniversaire de la Déclaration universelle des droits de l’homme des Nations unies. En vertu de cette déclaration, les droits de toutes les personnes sont protégés par la loi, quels que soient leur race, la couleur de leur peau, leur sexe, leur langue ou leur religion.

But there is also another important United Nations agreement. In 1989, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a special human rights convention for children: The Convention on the Rights of the Child.

It says that every child has a right to good food, shelter, education and play, the right to say what they think and to be listened to, and the right to protection from abuse.

More than 180 countries have signed this convention on the rights of children. But children around the world still die from diseases that can easily be treated or immunized against, still have to work long hours instead of going to school or playing, still are recruited into armies as soldiers, still are discriminated against because of their gender, race or ethnic background, still are neglected, abused, and exposed to violence and harmful drugs.

The pictures you have drawn will make a difference. By showing these pictures you are telling others that discrimination is wrong, that having to go to work instead of to school is wrong, and that children who are forced to serve in armies is wrong.

Dans tous les pays où vos oeuvres seront exposées, les enfants seront invités à les voir, et à dessiner une oeuvre qui montre au reste du monde pourquoi chacun d’entre nous doit avoir le droit de s’exprimer librement.

These drawings by other children in Latin America and the Caribbean will then join your drawings as part of the tour. When all of the pictures will come back to Canada -- probably around the middle of the year 2000, you will be invited to come back and see your work again, as well as the drawings of children from all over Latin America and the Caribbean.

We are all very proud of the work that you have done, and you make Canada proud when your work is displayed in other countries. Congratulations.

 

 
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