‘Let us protect the little ones to build peace today and for the future’.
‘Let us protect the little ones to build peace today and for the future’.
‘We must learn to listen to the voice of children, too often drowned out by the noise of the world. Listen to their dreams, their desires, which vibrate like music, their hopes, seeds planted in the heart of the earth, promises of a future of beauty’. This is how Father Enzo Fortunato, president of the Pontifical Committee for the World Children's Day, presented the International Summit on Children's Rights entitled ‘Let's love and protect them’, which will be held on 3 February in the Vatican Apostolic Palace.
Eight panel discussions will be attended by Nobel laureates, world leaders, professors, writers, economists and religious figures.
The event will be opened and closed by Pope Francis and will be attended by Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, President of the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development; Ahmed El-Tayeb, Grand Imam of al-Azhar; Liliana Segre, Senator for Life; Mario Draghi, former President of the European Central Bank; Al Gore, politician and environmentalist, former Vice President of the United States; Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee; Ahmed Naser Al-Raisi, President of Interpol; Edith Bruck, writer; Antonio Tajani, Vice-President of the Council of Ministers, Italy; Máximo Torero, Chief Economist, FAO; Megawati Sukarnoputri, Fifth President of Indonesia; Arif Husain, Chief Economist, World Food programme; Miguel Benasayag, philosopher and psychoanalyst; Paolo Gentiloni, Chairman, UN Task Force on Debt.
‘The year 2024 was one of the worst years in history for children living in areas of conflict, both in terms of the number of children affected and the impact on their lives,’ said Father Fortunato who added: ’The summit, convened by Pope Francis, will focus on children's rights, the key to building peace today and a better future for the generations that will inhabit the world in the future.
‘I would like us to imagine being children in a refugee camp, or in a home where hunger is the only certainty,’ said the Conventual Franciscan, stressing how, in a world where 14,000 children lose their lives every day, too many grow up “without the light of hope”.
The summit, coordinated by the Pontifical Committee for World Children's Day, will be opened by ten children, from different parts of the world, who will deliver a message to Pope Francis.
There will be two key moments: on 2 February an evening visit to the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Museums, followed the next day by an event focusing on crucial issues related to children's lives, with discussion panels in the Clementine Hall and the Consistory Hall.
During the presentation press conference held yesterday at the Vatican Press Office, Father Fortunato highlighted the dramatic reality in which millions of children live, comparing their condition to that of those who grow up without the comfort of hope, due to war, poverty, and violence.
Marco Impagliazzo, President of the Community of Sant'Egidio said: ‘We must place this event in the general framework of the Jubilee of Hope, it will be an event of hope. We do not pretend to say that it is the first one, but it is the first one to be held in the Vatican and convened by the Pope who is showing great interest in listening to children by summoning the most important personalities who have dealt with childhood, the answers because the problems that affect the lives of children are many. We are in a global crisis, the world is full of the sadness of children to whom the Pope wants to give back a smile, a future. The age of childhood is a peripheral age of the human. This is the Pope's interest, to push towards the human peripheries that are the children'.
Angelo Chiorazzo, founder of the Cooperativa sociale Auxilium, recalled his commitment to the 2023 mission in Ukraine in favour of children supported by Pope Francis. ‘We have a duty to protect children, a fragile sprout, nurture it with love, so that it grows strong and bears fruit for future generations,’ he said.
‘We are becoming dangerously anaesthetised to the pain, the destruction caused by wars, the innocent deaths, among them too often children. Unconsciously we perceive these events as far away from us, something that does not affect us and is therefore acceptable,' said Aldo Cagnoli, vice-president of the Pontifical Committee for the GMB. ’We owe children a future in which they can have hope. To achieve this, it is essential to listen to them with an open mind and heart. We must not give in to the cultural temptation of homologating citizens and future citizens, children, to the idea that they are part of a mosaic system, where each piece is replaceable by another similar, almost identical one’.
One of the most significant aspects of the Summit will be the in-depth examination of children's right to education and family. Life Senator Liliana Segre and former President of Indonesia Megawati Sukarnoputri will take part in a panel devoted to education, emphasising the importance of guaranteeing all children the right to an education that opens the door to the future. This right is particularly crucial at a time when children are often forced to work in dramatic conditions: according to the UNICEF report, some 160 million children are victims of child labour.
No less important is the theme of the family, with the reflection of Mariella Enoc, former president of the Bambino Gesù Hospital, who emphasised the social emergency linked to the separation of children from their parents, a growing phenomenon due to forced migration. The family, according to Enoc, is a fundamental right that is denied to too many children, and its protection is at the heart of the debate.
The summit will also address crucial issues such as the right to food, nutrition and health care. Personalities such as Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, founder of Mary's Meals, an organisation that provides school meals to children in the world's poorest countries, will participate in this panel. The right to health and protection from armed conflicts and ecological disasters will also be central topics, with speeches by Al Gore and Father Ibrahim Faltas, vicar of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land.
Pope Francis' commitment at this summit goes beyond condemning injustice: the Pontiff calls for a “revolution of the heart”, a profound change that starts from the conscience of adults, so that they can respond to the needs of children with more compassion and responsibility. On World Children's Day, Francis stressed that ‘children have the power to open the hearts of adults and, through this, to change the world’.
