Final day at the UN like a dream...

Hey everyone!

Today was our final day at the UN in Geneva and it was like a dream! We started off the day in our different groups: Dignity, Development and Dialogue of the child. I was in Dialogue again and sat on the panel. We discussed many obstacles that children face and the recommendations that we had to improve the CRC and its implementation around the world. Some of the problems that were discussed were the need for birth registration, the exclusion of children with disabilities and no parental care and the lack of opportunities available for children to voice their opinions. As well, once we are given the opportunity to speak up, our ideas are not always listened to and follow-up actions rarely happen. We want to see change through actions, being heard is not enough.

Next came the recommendations. We decided that raising awareness on child rights among both children and adults is so crucial in ensuring that they are respected. Especially by using the media, which is a form of communication that is very interesting and engaging for children. However, just because people are informed does not mean that they will respect child rights, therefore governments also need to take legal measures to ensure child rights are respected and that child participation is obligatory when decisions are being made that concern them. A big recommendation that we had was having governments improve their birth registration system, because if children are not even acknowledged by their country as a citizen, their rights are not being respected, nor will they be. Those are just some examples of the recommendations we discussed; there were 6 official recommendations that were chosen.

At the end of the day we had the closing ceremonies, and I along with 5 other youth participants got to sit on the panel with at the front of the room and be the last presentation of the day! We wrote the speech together and split up the parts and I was in charge of doing the conclusion to sum up our thoughts and close the ceremony as well as lead the activity. I thought that we had been very serious over the past 2 days at a conference on child rights, and it was time the child in everyone was brought out. So in front of the whole assembly I lead a little game. The instructions were simple: an emotion will be announced, and everyone must express that emotion on their face (happy, sad, angry, funny face). I was so surprised when everyone participated and had fun, which was the goal of the game! And during the rest of our presentation there was a smile on everyone's face too. We expressed our personal experience over the past 4 days and the process of the whole conference, our final recommendations and our congratulations to the Child Rights Committee for having implemented the CRC for 20 years now. Finally, I declared that the conference was now closed and made it official with the bang of a gavel

This was probably one of the most exhilirating experiences of my life and I will never ever forget this day. Being able to speak on behalf of so many children around the world and knowing that you're thoughts are being intently listened too. However, we were sure to stress the fact that listening is not enough because for us to have fully participated in this event, they need to take action in accordance to our suggestions too.

It is really late in Geneva, actually very early Saturday morning now so I am really exhausted. Goodnight to all!!

- Cara