Speech
to the UN
by Chris
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This is a mock-up speech to the United Nations
that may have been presented at their follow-up conference on chilren's rights, to which
children from many countries and levels of society were invited.
Link to other pages:
Essay: A Safe Place (on safe classrooms)
Links
Honoured Delegates of the United Nations,
thank you for inviting me here today to present my views on children’s rights. I am
honoured to represent my underprivelaged peers and how their rights are not respected.
Although Canada may be better than many third world countries where children do forced
labour under poor conditions, we still have our shortcomings. Some of our children live
under conditions similar to those in the ghettos of the Philippines, with little or no
water and food, with no sanitary service whatsoever. These are mainly immigrant families
that cannot get a job and support their family, but this is a lot of people in the
country. Many of these families were even poor in their home country, but now are forced
to live in absolutely dismal conditions in Canada as illegal immigrants. Many are denied
the rights to an education, and many other services. They have no access to healthcare,
although all are forced to work as janitors or other unsanitary jobs for minimal (or less)
wages. These children actually do not belong to a country, and they (as the rest of us)
have no choice in decisions that affect them. Although our government tries to consider
our welfare, they have no representative of the children in Parliament. Only adults can
vote on who is in there, and children have little or no say once the government is
elected. In fact, the government does not even have to respond to anything said by a
child. Children in some families are also denied the rights to interact with others in
their home regularly, not allowed to use the telephone or go outside alone. They are
completely denied access to the outside world. Their parents often frequently abuse them,
and the child has no means of contacting the police or social services. Other times,
children are beaten as punishment for the smallest offence, or are forced to sit and watch
as their parents drop their personal possessions and break them to pieces. Punishment such
as this is not as bad as the brutality that happens in other countries, but it is still a
violation of the rights of children. Another less apparent problem is actually verbal
abuse of children. Children everywhere are often wrung out by their parents for something,
but there are parents who overuse this form of punishment, or make it too strong. This has
been known to cause psychological problems, and to traumatise babies for life. These
babies grow up afraid of everything, never being able to overcome it or know why. Many
children also suffer from overreactions of parents, being punished for everything. They
are punished constantly and severely, like grounded for a week because they didn’t
say please. It is often absurd, but it leaves mental scars nevertheless. These children
grow up to hate the government and their parents.
Canada has another serious problem that has been
around for a while. Many kids are depressed because of conditions or their social life,
and some begin using illegal substances to alleviate this. This is because they do not
have access to psychological care, or have the money to purchase prescriptions for this.
Many are also forced into smoking and other drugs by their "friends" that will
not interact with them if they do not. These kids are often fooled by the large social
group, which only takes pleasure in excluding others.
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