The Children's Museum Jordan is a children's museum in Amman, Jordan. It is located in Al Hussein Public Parks.

Launched in 2007, the museum is a member of the Association of Children's Museums and Hands On! International. The Museum’s total build area of 7,348 square meters includes: 150 interactive indoor and outdoor exhibits, an art studio, a library, a multipurpose hall, an outdoor theatre, a restaurant with an adjunct party room and a gift shop. On standby are additional spaces with potential for development, such as the exhibit hall extension, a botanical garden annex or the special effects auditorium.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Children's_Museum_Jordan

In our society, family relations are respected and children are taken care of. To ensure good upbringing of children in our society, Muslim children are raised on believing in God, have faith in God, and adhere to the religion instructions.

In general, Islamic tradition has highly valued children’s rights to education, health, and care and protection. {Wealth and sons are allurements of the life of this world} (Al-Kahf 18:46)

Every child, regardless of their origin, have the same rights - the rights of the child.

UNICEF report identify two general problems in Poland: lack of a single institution which monitor and coordinate activities for the children (many institution take care of only particular aspects) and the bad teacher training system (averaging, the inhibition of talent - it requires fundamental change in the first place). Additionally, we can add health problems(fewer pediatricians, not the best perinatal care); we haven't got in Poland child protection services which is the first contact in any case; there is no support system for families with a child with a disability.

Every child ideally, is supposed to be protected, educated and cared for. In Nigeria for instance, these rights are enshrined in the constitution, but the implementation is the problem. Child trafficking, slavery, violence and so on are daily experienced by this vulnerable group. Few days ago, a suicide bomber (from the Boko Haram extremist group) killed about 50 pupils in a secondary school. Before this, the government was alerted but nothing was done to avert this. Many children drop out of school due to the inability to pay fees and many primary school facilities are not conducive for learning. While few countries have done reasonably well to protect children, many have left this vulnerable group to their fate.

Friends, children are the vulnerable persons who are the hope and future of every society.  They have rights, and if provided with physical and spiritual needs, protection, love and care, they are the 'arrows in the quiver' of their families and countries.  Here on this pic, 10 rights of children are stated by the UN.  Thanks.

One of the basic rights of children is education, because humans are intellectual creatures, bestowed with the gift of intellect.  This right need to be respected and upheld by our societies.  Some are called to make sacrifices that children in some nations may obtain this right.  And not all are rewarded for their sacrifices, now.  But their reward is a clear and joyful conscience!

Dear Nelson and friends, here are some related threads.  Concerning respect, we must respect children to receive their respect.  Children judge us on our actions and not our words or intentions.

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Impact_of_2014_Nobel_Peace_prize_on_Child_labor_abolition

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Isnt_it_true_that_children_in_poor_countries_must_work_to_feed_themselves_and_their_families

Reality is that children are the most defenseless group in the community, and a fair % of them are routinely abused worldwide on an astonishing scale. Partly because they cannot defend themselves, because they do not vote, because they have no economic power, and, last but not least, because whenever the community at large sees instances of abuse, no one wants to intervene lest they assume the economic burden of caring for other folks' children.

Read 'Les Enfants Martyrs' by Pierre Leulliette, or the recent 'Deutschland misshandelt seine Kinder' by Michael Toskos, or any number of such studies from any country (indeed, statistics of abuse are similar across geographical boundaries.) Abusing children, of course, is the crime of crimes - if they survive, these children might evolve into unhinged adults (e.g. Hitler was widely reported to have been regularly badly beaten up by his father.) Abusing children teaches them violence, betrayal by those who are actually in charge of loving them, etc.etc. 

The solution is simply to foster a culture everywhere where it's absolutely not all right to abuse children. We're still far from there. Our culture is also still riddled with criminally stupid leftovers from our primitive past (e.g.  'qui parcit virgae suae odit filium suum qui autem diligit illum instanter erudit' , and all that nonsense.)

Beyond what has been said to which I subscribe i would add that children beloved by their parent have the greatest gift nature can provide and have little need for further "rights". Others deserve our compassion and unfortunately, enacting "rights" will not improve much their condition.

Could love be more ubiquitous.

'Some societies display respect for children in their art, legal systems, medicine, sciences, and theories of education.'  Yes, since my childhood days, I know that UNESCO is one such society.  And it strives to improve the welfare for children.  Let us also be concerned to respect children.  They are the hope of our society.

How does child protection enhance child learning and education outcomes? 

a. Child ill health, hunger, and poor nutrition reduces school attendance, learning, and completion; school repetition arising from these problems leads to higher educational costs  

b. Child abandonment, abuse and maltreatment affects child learning, and poor

psycho-social development arising from these problems could lead to youth delinquency and other forms of social pathology  

c. Child labor takes children out of school or reduces their available time for learning

d. If not addressed, child disability could lead to significant numbers of children unable to access educational opportunities that the rest enjoy

e. Children involved in crime or delinquency dims their future prospects and, unless given a second chance, could lead to wasted lives and societal costs

f. Child poverty inhibits overall access to educational opportunities and learning, and has a negative inter-generation impact on the prospects of their children.

http://www.unesco.org/education/WCECCE/presentations/Picazo.pdf

The Children's Museum Jordan is a children's museum in Amman, Jordan. It is located in Al Hussein Public Parks.

Launched in 2007, the museum is a member of the Association of Children's Museums and Hands On! International. The Museum’s total build area of 7,348 square meters includes: 150 interactive indoor and outdoor exhibits, an art studio, a library, a multipurpose hall, an outdoor theatre, a restaurant with an adjunct party room and a gift shop. On standby are additional spaces with potential for development, such as the exhibit hall extension, a botanical garden annex or the special effects auditorium.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Children's_Museum_Jordan

Dear Respndents,

As always, your answers are invaluable. I initially wanted the children´s rights enumerated in a series, and our dear friend Kamal has supplied an inclusive list. True, we protect our future by protecting our children, but I suspect we need to subordinate OUR future to THEIR wellbeing at present. Yes, Patrice, I have always viewed children as a gift. Mine are priceless and my grandchildren an unanticipated blessing.  Thank you, Miranda, for mentioning UNESCO, so needed in our world of widespread abuse. Also, child poverty is a problem needing to be addressed. I remember seeing street children living in cardboard boxes in Sao Paulo. Mahfuz, I appreciate knowing about the Jordanian Children´s Museum. From what I am learning in RG about Jordan, it constitutes a closeknit community that cares. 

Finally, in the two paintings by Diego Velázquez, I have tried to put before your eyes two visions of children: the famous equestrian portrait of Prince Baltasar Carlos, which idealizes the child beyond normal human reckoning; and the vision of Doña Antonia de Ipeñarrieta and her son, which reduces a child to an extension of the parent and shows him cowering in her shadow while on a leash!!!!

Children is the future of this society. Unfortunately in many cases children have been converted either to a chip work, or worriers in some extremists. It is not right say USA or EU, to care about their children and at the same time to exploit children in developing countries. We need independent international organizations that check if there is a country that does not respect the rights of children. Similarly we need such an organization (not like UNO) to check if the international laws hold everywhere.   

Dear Nelson,

Your comment is highly appreciated. I agree with you that from what we are learning in RG about Jordan and all countries, RG constitutes a close knit community that cares.

I want to give you all different visions of children from the masters. Here is Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zúñiga, who lived to be only eight years old.  In his beautiful red costume, his face reflects the fragility of childhood, captured beautifully by the artist Goya. His childish beauty will live forever despite the brevity of his life. I happened to see this portrait in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts 2 weeks ago, and the colors seem as vivid as when they were painted.

Childhood is the stage between birth and the attainment of adulthood for children to grow with the love and encouragement of their family and an extended community of caring adults. It is a precious time in which children should let to live free from fear, to be in school and at play, safe from violence and protected from abuse and exploitation. It refers to the state of physical, spiritual purity and all-round happiness that comes to the front beyond any kind of material things. When we think of child, all peachy cheeks and soft curls, playing in park or on beaches, picking pebbles, clapping, skipping, running after birds and butterfly and so many innocent actions come in mind. A child has to right enjoy his child with lots of love, care, freedom, genial education, sociable environment and free from any kind of physical and mental burden, worries, fear, cruelty and violence.

Yogesh, you have created a prose poem to the child. I wish that all RG respondents could write with such precision, directness, elegance, and conciseness.  Shortly I will append another vision of childhood by the masters of painting.

Here is August Renoir´s famous "A GIrl with a Watering Can." Note the delicacy of the girl´s features, the freshness of the colors, and the luminous haze over the whole. The little girl wants to participate in the gardening chores of the family, and Renoir, to dignify her, paints her in a dress perhaps finer than she would have worn in real life for such a task. This idealization of the child falls squarely in the tradition of Velázquez´s equestrian portrait of Prince Baltasar Carlos, depicted above. The French impressionists often acknowledged their debt to Velázquez.

Here is the other side of the coin.  In Murillo´s "Boys Eating Grapes and Mellon," painted around 1650, the children are not idealized at all, but painted in straightforward fashion in the "bodegón" style, that is, commonplace scenery of kitchen or hearth.  There is something in the picaresque tradition about the way that the boy on the left twists his head to savor the grapes.  We recall that in "The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes," the first picaresque novel, the protagonist, ragged little Lázaro, tricks his master the blind man into letting him eat more grapes than he should. Note that, as opposed to the finery of the children posted previously, the two boys in this picture wear rags.

What a masterful painting, dear Kamal! Note the bent position of the legs, as if the child were incapacitated for ambulation The light seems to suggest that the young beggar is enclosed in a cell, a dark, confined place, clearly the prison of his poverty. As a physician, Kamal, you might be interested to know that this youngster is engaged in the operation of removing his own body lice.  A child´s right to shelter should include a right to a modicum of sanitation.

Current case from Poland: November 20 is the 25th anniversary of the adoption by the General Assembly of the United Nations Convention on the Child Rights. In Poland, this day is celebrated for the first time as a National Day of the Child Rights.

On this occasion, the Association of Legal Intervention calls for a ban on closing the children of foreigners in guarded centers. In their opinion, Poland in this way violates the rights of migrant children by taking away their freedom.

Sufficient reason to deprive children of freedom is the their parents recognition for unwanted migrants in Poland or the rejection of their application for refugee status. And yet, the Convention on the Child Rights prohibits punishing children for the actions of their parents and orders directing the child's best interests in all actions of public authorities relating to minors.

I think that combating violence against children should be the responsibility of the whole society. Equally important is the parents and professionals awareness of anti-harming, as well as the ability to respond witnesses of violence.

I think that most parents who use violence in raising children, suffered the same treatment in childhood. In Poland we have the campaign "Bad tradition" which draws the attention of parents to the fact that the old educational measures (such as the beating or scream) harm the children and must be changed. The campaign is trying to convince the audience that the world has changed. Hitting children is illegal, because the child must be treated like any other citizen, and its right to protection from violence must be respected.

Dear Nelson, 

Your thread is always interesting and raised ideas of great number of children depiction in Polish art. Many of our artists painters portrayed own children. One of most famous was Jan Matejko (1838-1893). This emotional painting of four own children is from 1879. Probably their childhood was happy one. 

Here is more about J. Matejko: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Matejko

Beautiful, dear Kamal. Thank you for sharing :-) 

Here is maternity painted by our Polish painter Stanislaw Wyspianski (1867-1907) 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Wyspia%C5%84ski

Dear friends, November 20th is Universal Children's Day! "We were all children once. And we all share the desire for the well-being of our children, which has always been and will continue to be the most universally cherished aspiration of humankind."

http://www.un.org/en/events/childrenday/

Child rights in Serbia is fine article about this issue regarding my country! Link follows! After a few years, the complete situation has been changed.Critical review of the situation in the field of children's rights is given in the following attachment. "What the current situation shows is that there is still no understanding of the need for effective coordination and management of activities in the field of child rights. The only coordinating body for child rights at the level of government - the Council for Child Rights is not active for 2 years, so there is no mechanism for coordinating activities in the field of child rights. Amendments to the National Plan of Action for Children for the period 2010-2015 have not been made, and the overall score as in previous years is that implementation of strategic plans and action plans are usually not approached as an instrument of development. This outcome is estimated as a major setback in achieving the rights of the child because the existence of a clear development plan is one of the basic prerequisites for continuous improvement of child rights. The budget is still not transparent enough when it comes to the visibility of the allocations that are intended to improve the situation of children, nor the budgetary allocations for children were increased. At this point the activities of the Government point out that children are not a priority for the Government of the Republic of Serbia."

http://www.unicef.org/rightsite/sowc/pdfs/panels/Child%20rights%20in%20Serbia.pdf

http://www.cpd.org.rs/en/home/prava_deteta_u_srbiji.html

Dear Marta, Poland´s problem of imprisoning children of foreigners matches the United States's present problem:  Latin American children immigrate illegally while separated from their parents and the U.S. immigration officials inter them.  The Republicans, or conservative party of the U.S., oppose immigration reform, so the U.S. Congress (Paliament) can do nothing. Now President Obama wants to take executive action on his own to ease the immigration problem, separating the status of children from the status of the rest of their families.  What if an illegal immigrant has a child in the U.S.? The child is a U.S. citizen. If the U.S. government deports the child´s parents, a family is broken. The situation is disastrous, and the child´s rights are violated.

Dear Nelson, Dear All, 

I'm glad that the thread developes many various dimensions of the topic. I agree with Marta's remarks about the shadows behind the Polish reality towards children from migrating families and their limited rights.

Another aspect is corporal punishment. Since 2013 Poland accepted the EU law about total rejection of corporal punishment of children, but our cultural patterns of corporal punishment, even on mild level, are difficult to change and eliminate from practice. That's very bad culturally grounded tradition we try change since years. Unfortunatelly It takes much time.

Changing a bit  the direction of the reflections, I would like to share another depiction of children in art. First image illustrates own two children of the artist painter Olga Boznanska (1865-1940). Not only in my opinion this was the best Polish female painter. The second depicts the Grandma's name-day. Both paintings in very sensitive way express the beauty and innocence of the childhood. 

Dear Beata,

Many thanks for contributing beautiful paintings of children by Olga Boznanska. The first one captures the wide-eyed wonder of little boys; perhaps they show wonderment at what the artist´s brush can accomplish.  The second one uses brushstrokes full of pigment to portray the softness of little girls.  The technique is inherited from French impressionism as we saw in Renoir.  It is so easy to paint the dignity of young children, who seem to have an inborn poise.  Shortly I will supply some famous paintings of children by Picasso.

Here is "Child with a Dove" (1901), a painting which the U.K. cherishes.  The United Nations has at time used the image of this painting to symbolize world peace. The canvas with its soft blues and short. choppy background bushstrokes creates an impression of serenity.  Picasso paints children in every phase of his artistic evolution. This is so true, that it is easy to memorize those phases simply by recalling his famous paintings of children. Obviously "Child with a Dove" illustrates his initial stage, the so-called blue period.

Here is the list of children's rights! A short outline of the 54 Articles is outlined."The United Nations Secretary-General's Study on Violence against Children has been a global effort to paint a detailed picture of the nature, extent and causes of violence against children, and to propose clear recommendations for action to prevent and respond to it. This is the first time that an attempt has been made to document the reality of violence against children around the world, and to map out what is being done to stop it." Some good videos are available as well as the download of a whole report.

http://unchildrights.blogspot.com/2009/03/summary-childrens-rights-convention.html

http://www.unviolencestudy.org/

Dear Nelson, 

Picasso very sensitively captured the timidity and delicacy of the child he portrayed. Dear @Kamal, very nice images of playing children and the other one with animal. Children should have happy childhood, that's the key.

Here are another paintings by Stanislaw Wyspianski (1869-1907). First  tit. "Little Helena with vase with flowers" from 1902 which illustrates his own daughter Helena and the second "Little Joseph Feldman" from 1905. This little boy with long hair became years after Polish Historian at Jagiellonian University. Portraits of children by S. Wyspianski were called by our art historians most poetic depiction of children.

Thanks, Beata for Wispianski. You have the gift for selecting good art to show us that we haven´t seen before. I love the straight hair of the little girls. It is so true-to-life.  The little boys get all the curls!

Here is "Paul Drawing PIctures" (1923) by  Picasso, portraying his own beloved little boy, trying to imitate his father, obviously. There is a cubist element in the present portrayal of Paul, if you look for it carefully.

After seeing Paul, compare "Frederick as Spiderman" (2014), a photograph by my son Neal, Freddy´s dad. Freddy has as much plasticity as Paul Picasso.

Thanks, Kamal, for the pictures of children who care for other creatures. The caring that the artist feels for the child is projected by the child onto the animal.

Picasso cared for the theme of the Commedia del arte. He also cared for his son Paul. Here is Paul costumed as Pierrot.  One can find any number of children painted in costume (like my grandson Freddy, above, photographed as Spiderman).

Here also in Paul as Harlequin.

What a emotional and delicate side of Pablo Picasso is shown as faterly perception and illustration of own sons. Thank you dear Nelson, for sharing these paintings. These depictions change my knowledge and make warmer image of P. Picasso and his complicated and difficult personality.

Dear Beata,

An imperative of veracity impels me to let you know that, according to Picasso´s granddaughter, he was not a good father and grandfather (despite the affection with which he portrayed his son).  The son Paulo, spoiled, grew up to be a racecar driver, a ne'er-do-well, and ended up as his father´s chauffeur.  Paulo died to his bad habit of alcoholism. Most of the other children and grandchildren of Picasso also fared poorly. When the grandchildren were in a state of poverty, their wealthy grandfather would not lift a finger to aid them.  Hence the celebrated Picasso violated the human rights of children.

Dear Nelson, 

I knew from P. Picasso bioraphy years ago read, that he maltreated females of his life but you gave a new light about his attitude towards children and grandchildren. This is however strange I mean the selectivenes of emotional openness only on artistic expression surfaces. Maybe his bad alcoholic habits are some explaination ?

Dear Kamal,

From the perspective of  alcohol addiction I suppose yes, this could cause "mood swinging". 

I don´t think that the artist Picasso himself was an alcoholic (although his son became one), but yes, there is evidence of mood swings in PIcasso as artist.  His initial "blue" period shows melancholy; his first "rose" period displays a lightening in mood: his "analytical cubism" reveals a complete dedication to vocational experiment; his second "rose" period glows with the joy of fatherhood (of Paulo); then comes vocational dedication in the invention of "synthetic cubism"; finally comes the nightmarish horror of "surrealism," culminating in destruction of women and children in "Guernica."

"Desemparats" (Mother and Child, 190l): blue period melancholy

"Mother and Child" (1905): first rose period, the dawn of hope.

"Mother and Child" Second Pink Period: imitation of Greek statuary.

"Bathers with a Beachball" (1928): surrealist style. Picasso imitates children´s style of painting.  Quite a contrast!  I have always asked myself whether it is legitimate for an adult artist to emulate children´s art. Somehow it seems artificial.

One aspect of childhood has been completely neglected in this thread: music composed for children. We were raised listening to Prokofief´s "Peter and the Wolf" (a fine musical lesson on leitmotive as symbols) and to Saint-Saens´s "Carnival of the Animals" (also showing how art imitates nature, however humorously). I will try to append youtubes of both to the present entry. If any meaningful children´s music occur to any of you, please add it too.

Prokofief:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OQvH90hKEw

Saint-Saens: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SjagpXeNhM

Since parents must accompany children to the concert hall, Maurice Ravel wrote a child´s opera for the whole family; "L'Enfant et les sortileges" [The Child and the Magic Spells], based on a children´s book by Camille.  A child breaks objects at home and tortures animals. As if by magic (in a dream sequence), the objects and the animals seek retribution, and the child learns the lesson of kindness to other beings.  The mild moralizing is not the real aim of the music, but rather the capacity of music to suggest things and animals.    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXKCTIQInfk

This is an essential dimension, Kamal, many thanks.

Here is a real shocker. In August of this year, 2014, child poverty became an issue of elections in as prosperous a country as New Zealand.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503450&objectid=11314470

I also happen to the know that in the U.S. child poverty is a genuine concern! Shortly I will provide documentary evidence.

16,000,000 children or 22% of all children  in the U.S. live under the poverty line!

http://www.nccp.org/topics/childpoverty.html

This takes place in the richest nation on the globe. Something is not right with the world.

How many children in America are officially poor?

Rates of official child poverty vary tremendously across the states.

  Child poverty rates across the states, 2005

Nationwide, 18% of children live in families that are officially considered poor (13 million children).

Across the states, child poverty rates range from 7% in New Hampshire to 27% in Mississippi.

What are some of the characteristics of officially poor children in America?

Poverty is especially prevalent among black, Latino, and American Indian children.

Child poverty nationwide, by race, 2005

35% of black children live in poor families. In the 10 most populated states, rates of child poverty among black children range from 20% in New Jersey to 43% in Ohio.

28% of Latino children live in poor families. In the 10 most populated states, rates of child poverty among Latino children range from 20% in New Jersey, Florida, and Illinois to 35% in Texas.

29% of American Indian and 11% of Asian children live in poor families (comparable state comparisons are not possible due to small sample sizes).

10% of white children live in poor families. In the 10 most populated states, rates of child poverty among white children range from 4% in New Jersey to 12% in Georgia.

Having immigrant parents increases a child’s chances of being poor.

Poor children by parents’ nativity, 2005

26% of children of immigrants are poor; 16% of children of native-born parents are poor. (Children living with one immigrant parent and one native-born parent are not included.)

In the six states with the largest populations of immigrants—California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and Texas—the poverty rate among children of immigrant parents ranges from 14% to 40%.

In all six states, children living with immigrant parents are more likely to be poor than children of native-born parents.

Official poverty rates are highest for young children.

20% of children under age 6—1 in 5—live in poor families; 16% of children age 6 or older live in poor families.

In half the states, more than 20% of children under age 6 are growing up in poverty, whereas only 13 states have a child poverty rate (that is, for children up to age 18) that is as high.

Researchers believe that parents of young children do not earn as much as parents of older children because they tend to be younger and have less work experience.

What are some of the economic hardships faced by children in America?

Food insecurity, lack of affordable housing, and other economic hardships affect millions of American children—not just those who are officially poor.

16% of households with children experience food insecurity. 2

41% of families who rent their homes spend more than a third of their income on rent.

Compared to white families with children, black and Latino families with children are more than twice as likely to experience economic hardships. 3

Many poor children lack health insurance.

19% of poor children lack health insurance—this is nearly double the percent of all children who lack coverage (10%).

In the 10 most populated states, the percent of poor children who lack health insurance ranges from 12% in Michigan to 28% in Florida and Texas.

The percent of all children who lack health insurance increased for the first time in nearly a decade in 2005—from 10.8% in 2004 to 11.2% in 2005. 4

What can be done about child poverty?

Child poverty is not intractable. Effective public policies can make a difference. NCCP recommends two major policy strategies to improve the well-being of children and families living in poverty:

Make work pay

Since research is clear that poverty is the greatest threat to children’s well being, strategies that help parents succeed in the labor force can help children. Policies such as earned income tax credits and regular increases in the minimum wage are critical to supporting income growth for low-wage workers. These workers also need access to benefits that higher-wage earners take for granted, such as health insurance and paid sick leave.

Support parents and their young children

To thrive, children need nurturing families and quality early learning experiences. Programs that target families with infants and toddlers, such as Early Head Start, have been shown to improve children’s cognitive development and their behavior, as well as parenting skills. Investments in preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds are just as critical. High-quality early childhood experiences can go a long way toward closing the achievement gap between poor children and their more well-off peers.

I was not aware of such rate of child poverty in USA!!! It is really shocking statistics! I have found one more resource about!

http://www.npc.umich.edu/poverty/

Dear Nelson,

This validates that USA, is between the "new third world"!

Dear Kamal, Ljubomir, and Costas, child poverty is INCREASING in the US, as Ljubomir´s Michigan figures show. 24% of all children in the US live in poverty. The increase is produced by immigration of children from Latin America. Obama has just made an executive order to alleviate the immigration problem in terms of migrant workers not fearing to be in the US illegally if they agree to pay their income taxes, and in terms of changing priorities for deportation: immigrant criminals will be deported first.  Obama´s order affects many millions of Latinos (we do not know exactly how many) and of course their children. The Republicans are doing their best to reverse Obama´s action on the ground of illegality. 

Dear Costas,

You say that the US is among the "new third world."  But can we say that other nations are treating their children better? If so, I would love to see statistics to that effect. All this is very unfortunate and proves that children enrich our lives and culture while adults impoverish theirs.

You are very generous, dear Kamal: all countries may be responsible, but the countries with the most prosperous economies (U.S., China, Japan) are those most able to improve the lot of the world children, yet do not their share.

In my attempt to show that children enrich us but we do not do enough for them, I want to mention the underrated Catalan pianist composer Frederic Mompou, whose beautiful Scènes d'enfants actually make music out of children´s screams of joy at play.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMNfBBNjgtU&list=RDQMNfBBNjgtU#t=26

Dear Nelson,

I was referring to a book "Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World": Michael Lewis which includes Germany, USA, etc. as the new third world.  Your statistics seems to validate what Lewis said.

Wow, Costas, I have to take a look at Michael Lewis' book! Thanks for the reference!

Tonight, children´s rights were grossly violated when the Pakistani Taliban invaded a military-run school, slaughtering over 100 defenseless children in revenge for the Pakistani government's offensive against those Taliban elsewhere.  Even the Afghani Taliban inveighed against their brethren of Pakistan for acting against the laws of Islam.  (I will forbear from invoking the saying that people who live in glass houses should not throw stones.) This day will live in infamy in Pakistani history as corresponding to the 9-11 massacres in the U.S.

Funerals Begin for 141 Slain in Taliban Attack on Pakistan School! Pakistan has begun three days of mourning following Tuesday's Taliban assault on a school in Peshawar that killed 141 people, nearly all of them students. Poor children and their families! Where is the end?!

http://www.voanews.com/content/pakistan-mourns-school-massacre-victims/2562242.html

http://www.voanews.com/content/reu-taliban-gunmen-attack-military-run-school-in-nw-pakistan/2560556.html

The deadly attack of Pakistani Taliban on innocent school children has triggered shock and outrage across the world. Pakistani government should immediately take up serious actions to eliminate the Taliban or the sort of people who use Islam to justify carnage and their wicked deeds.

The thing is, dear Yogesh, that everyone in the world is condemning the Pakistani Taliban´s murderous action, so that the murderers have reaped no propaganda value whatsoever from their heinous deed. On the contrary, the revulsion makes that act counterproductive for its perpetrators.  Hopefully, this negative reaction will deter future bloodbaths of the same kind.

While in many countries across the globe encouraging progress is reported in terms of the health situation and development potential of children, many others lag behind. This is especially the case among the least-developed countries like sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia. Poverty, gender exclusion, geographic isolation and child abuse are major determinants for the extent to which children’s rights are yet to be realized. In the so-called developed world, grave child rights issues exist as well. Prevalence of cruelty and violence against children particularly in terrorism affected parts of the world is also a serious issue. Children right and welfare actions should reduce the gap between principles and practice and should covers a number of separate actions and processes within a given cultural, religious, social and political context for actual realisation of the mission by all economic, political and legal means.

So what you are saying, Yogesh, is that economic development is often inversely proportional to respect for children's rights, but that this is not uniformly the case.  The factor of terrorism throws the inverse proportion out the window.  No truer words were ever spoken.

@ Nelson, Economic growth, in itself, has not led to development all and individuals/groups across the world are still facing socio-economic inequality due to entrenched past and current forms of discrimination. Thus, it is discrimination that undermines the fulfilment of economic, social and cultural rights for a significant proportion of the world’s population including children. In fact, the actual motive behind terrorism is political ambitions and not the religion. But unfortunately, religion is being exploited as the easiest means of convincing others of the same faith to join the cause of terror. The so-called religiously oriented terrorist groups across the world typically attempting to inflict as many casualties irrespective of age, community, religion, etc, referring the misinterpreted form of religious sayings.

Yogesh, the destruction perpetrated by the Pakistani Taliban in the name of religious orthodoxy should be put in its proper historical perspective as a timeworn, by now trite tactic to advance personal and group self-aggrandizement.  In Western history, we also see examples of this self-seeking in the Medieval Crusades, in the Medieval and Renaissance Inquisition (Spain and the Papacy), and in religiously motivated imperialism of all periods.  However bloody terrorist tactics may be, they never rise above their triteness.  Once the initial shock of the terrorized world passes, the world recognizes the unoriginality and falseness of those tactics.

The theme of the "massacre of the innocents" is as old as the Bible and extends beyond Picasso, who also shows the victimization of women and children by the warmongers.

Children, however, have recently harnessed the weapon of eloquence against those who would transgress their rights.  In this thread, I want to recognize Malala Yousafzai as a young, pre-adolescent heroine, surviving violence and championing the right of Pakistani girls to receive an education, as against the Taliban who would oppose this right.  Malala, Nobel Prize-Winner, has given speeches worldwide in defense of that right.

Another late answer, but here's a fantastic text (a great, theoretical - and interdisciplinary - basis for considering children and their rights).   It's a bit pricey, but I refer to it frequently when I'm writing: The Moral and Political Status of Children (Archard et al): http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199242689.do 

You have a branch of sociology that is called childhood sociology that explores how infancy should be considered a social construction. In recent decades studies in the North American context and in the West in educational and pedagogical mainly, have given increasing importance to the figure of the child, considered to be an active agent, with rights and social importance and considered merely an "adult potential".Regard for the rights or for more information: "Children: Rights and Childhood" (David Archard)

Greetings

There is a difference between the rich and the poor. Islamic extremists have exploited poverty in Arab societies and recruited children to carry out their evil deeds. The rights of children can only be restored after political reform is achieved.

That the Messenger of Islam Muhammad gave the child great rights had begun from the moment of his birth as he recommended choosing a beautiful name for him as well as between and through the Koran and revealed the verses show the rights of the child in nursing and the duration of the child has enjoyed in Islam since his full eligibility, In the inheritance and the commandment. The Messenger of Allah also said that the child must be observed in terms of behavior and social.

But unfortunately we notice in our society the loss of many rights of the child did not follow what was recommended by God and His Messenger Muhammad.

I agree with Dr azhar