Our thoughts

We have learned about the history of children's rights, their specific contents, social issues related to children, and efforts to address these issues. In this page, we will consider what we can do to resolve these issues and build a future where all children can live with a smile on their faces.

Considering the Children's Rights

In order to build a better future for children, each of us has to learn about and think about children's rights and issues involving children. Looking back on the development of children's rights in the past, we can see that it has been achieved in part by the growing voices within society. If each of us, the smallest unit that makes up our society, is aware of the importance of children and our commitment to building a better society for children, small changes will be made in personal belongings, resulting in a change in society as a whole.

Since this site is participating in the “25th Japan Junior high school / high school Web contest,” many of you may visit this site through the contest as a gateway to the site. I believe that many of those who access Information about children's rights and social issues related to children such as those on this site may already have an interest in issues related to children. However, in order to bring about social change, we need to get people who are not currently interested to think about the current situation of children and their future. Therefore, we believe it is important to expand the “circle” of people who think about children. When tragic incidents involving the loss of life occur in relation to issues related to children, they may draw a great deal of attention in society and raise the focus of attention on the issues. However, as time passes, these incidents might be forgotten without effective countermeasures being taken. While it is important to keep these incidents from fading away, we believe it is also important to raise awareness of social issues involving children before such incidents occur, and to take steps toward solving the problems. By doing so, we may be able to improve the situation before a tragic incident occurs.

Talking about children's rights with those around you will also help to expand this “circle” of people thinking about children's rights. Some people may be surprised if you suddenly say to your friends, “Why don't we talk about children's rights?” Therefore, we suggest starting with familiar topics, such as the school rules at your school.

We believe that in order to build a future where all children can live with smiles on their faces, we first should think about children, and then expand the “circle.”