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The International Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted by the UN General Assembly on November 20, 1989. The State of Israel joined the convention signatories in July 1990. The Convention took effect in August 1991. The State of Israel thereby declared its intention and commitment to obey the convention instructions and carry out its principles.
The Convention Principles
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The rights of the child are to be applied from the point of view of the child as the recipient of the rights, rather than from the point of view of the adults who grant him/her these rights.
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Each country is entitled to adjust the rights to its culture and social norms, but defined prohibitions exist, such as those against child slavery, degradation and torture.
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Each country is to be allowed to progress gradually toward the full actualization of the rights of the child.
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The covenant rights are interlinked; the waiving of some will lead to harming the rest. Each country must show how it invests means and efforts to advance the rights in their entirety.
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The entirety of the rights will be applied to all children and young people equally.
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The participatory principle: Each child has his/her own opinion and the right to be heard. Concerned and dignified attention to what he/she says is important. The child must be made a partner in the determination of his/her destiny by giving due consideration to his/her opinion, in accordance with his/her age and level of maturity.
The child is entitled to additional rights beyond those of adults, such as the right to be educated, not to have to work, etc. The decision to advance the special interests of the child ensures the development of the child's usefulness as an individual and as benefiting society as a whole. The transition from a defensive approach to an approach that involves the child in the processes related to determining his/her destiny, for example, his/her education, is quite new and reflects a change in the perception by the adult world of the rights to which the child is entitled. In this new approach, the child is perceived as a future autonomous adult whose talents are in an ongoing process of development toward maturation. Therefore, he/she must be granted his/her own rights, which are similar in nature to those of adults but differ in scope.
A competition of paintings and posters on the theme "From School to Educational Institution from the Child's Viewpoint" gave pupils, teachers and educational faculty in- schools throughout the country opportunities to focus on learning about and experiencing the values underlying the rights of children and young people.
The pupils' pictures express their struggles, desires and dreams as well as difficulties they have experienced when their or their friends' rights were violated. The pictures constitute an appeal by the children to adult society - teachers and parents: "Protect us, involve us, take us into consideration...tell us about out rights... we too are citizens."
The better we, the significant adults in their lives, can detect the hints in this appeal, perceive them with all our senses, and relate to each child each individually with compassion, dignity, love and nonjudgmental attention, the more deeply we will imbue them with confidence that we will truly care for their welfare and success. We send a message to everyone everywhere through these stamps: "Children have rights -the state has a duty to grant them rights, and this obligates us as teachers and parents to make sure they experience love, success and the rights of young citizenship. These will be used by them as building blocks to foster maturity -caring for others, active listening, help, concern and dignity for every human being, whether short or tall, young or old."
The Sabbath Tractate of the Talmud (p. 127B) says: He who judges his friend on a scale of merit, judges him meritoriously. As adults we have a responsibility to carry out the verse that states: "Judge the whole person on a scale of merit." The focus on "the whole person," meaning all sides of his/her character, prompts a favorable judgment, that is, not passing judgment based on a single aspect of his/her personality or behavior, but developing an inclusive view of his/her personality, from which one can speak favorably of the person.
The guarantee of children's rights is in effect the guarantee of Israeli society as a society in which a culture of dignity is a supreme value.
Tova Ben-Ari
Supervisor for Implementation
of the Student's Rights Law
Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports
