« I will respect the basic rights of all, regardless of gender, age, ability, health, language, ethnicity, race, colour, religion, caste, sexual orientation and any other aspects of identity or personal characteristics. » Thus reads the Code Of Conduct signed by everyone working for our organisation. And more : « I will not take part in any form of discrimination, harassment, or abuse (physical, sexual or verbal), intimidation or exploitation, or in any other way infringe the rights of others ».
Many of the children cared for in our programmes are part of ethnic minorities, for example in our programmes in Latin America, or those who fled their countries because of their ethnicity, race, colour or religion and live in refugee camps now.
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and international frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals are the foundations of our programme and advocacy work and they both have a clear position on discrimination and racism based violence:
Article 2 of the Convention of the Rights of the Child, underlines, that States Parties shall respect and ensure the rights (…) to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the child’s or his or her parent’s or legal guardian’s race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status.
The Sustainable Development Goal N° 16 promotes peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development and means to provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
The recent events are disturbing for many of us, but we do know that racism based violence is not just happening, it is mostly the result of the past. A good reason for our organisation to continue to protect children from violence, not only those who are discriminated because of their race, but all of them who are victim of any kind of violence. Growing up in an environment of peace and respect will allow them to become peaceful adults.
© photo: Giti Carli Moen
