You are a Child Campaign - Global

The series of 4 campaigns focusses on the following CRC articles:

1. Article 28 (education): commits governments to "make primary education compulsory and available to all". The slogan of this "Education for All" campaign is "You are Six and Your Education is Over".
2. Article 38 (child soldiers): organisers say that the Optional Protocol to the CRC on the involvement of children in armed conflict represents a global consensus that children should not be used as instruments of war. The slogan of this "War is not for Children" campaign is "You are Nine Years Old and Kill for a Living".
3. Article 32 (child labour): states that every child has the right to be "...protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education, or to be harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development." The slogan of this "Children's Rights" campaign is "You Work more Hours a Day than your Age".
4. Article 20 (street children) - upcoming.

The primary strategy for getting these messages across is encouraging citizens, organisations, and the media to put pressure on civil society and legislators, who have the clout to create the political will to motivate governments to honour the CRC. The central tool supporting this strategy is the Action Kit, parts of which are available online (background information and various "alerts") and parts of which (posters, postcards to be sent to members of Congress or Parliament) are offered in hard-copy format. For each series of campaigns, EarthAction mails printed Action Kits containing these ready-to-use materials to organisations, policymakers, journalists, and individuals worldwide. The kits are available in 5 languages (English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish).

While the kits provide information in the form of a resource list and background details about each CRC article - and the reality that children are living even in the face of that article - the kits are action-oriented. For instance, the "Education for All" kit features a full-size colour poster with a photo of children in an overcrowded classroom. The provocative words, "You are Six and Your Education is Over" are superimposed over the photo. Several postcards bearing this message are also included. Meant to be sent to legislators, the postcards feature blazingly bright neon colours and a brief letter (to be signed by the campaigner) detailing specific legislative actions to be taken. For each campaign, an Action Alert, Parliamentary Alert, and Media Alert are also included. These may also be accessed on the You are a Child page on the Earth Action website. On this site, campaigners are encouraged to send reports of actions to EarthAction through an online Response Form.

The Internet is a strategy in a larger EarthAction initiative: the e-Parliament. In collaboration with the Global Negotiation Project at Harvard University, the World Federation of United Nations Associations, and others, EarthAction is asking democratically elected national legislators from around the world to join a working group. This group will engage with citizens, mostly through an online forum, to work to find solutions to problems that children are facing. Also in development is a World Future Council, an advisory body made up of moral leaders of all ages who will serve as a "global moral compass" guiding ethical decisions on national and international policies, treaties, and laws. After organising itself into Action Networks (the first of which will focus on children), the World Future Council will act as an advisory body to the e-Parliament, other parliamentary bodies, national governments, the European Union, corporations, and UN Agencies.

Children, Education, Rights, Conflict.

Organisers are motivated by what they say are failures on the part of the 191 governments worldwide that have ratified the CRC. For example, EarthAction claims that, despite the existence of Article 28, an estimated 120 million children age 6 to 12 have never attended school. They say that an estimated 250 million children in the world work as child labourers, despite the fact that most nations have ratified several treaties that make child labour illegal.

The "Education for All" Action Kit was awarded an international graphic design award. Selections from the Kit appear in the 2003 Graphic Design Annual issue of Communication Arts magazine.

Launched in 1992, EarthAction is an international network of 2,200 groups in 160 countries who work to mobilise global public pressure for a more just, peaceful, and sustainable world. Several times a year, the group selects one critical issue on which to focus; past emphases include climate change, war prevention, desertification, and meeting basic human needs.