Mes­sage from Her Ex­cel­len­cy Paula-Mae Weekes O.R.T.T., Pres­i­dent of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go on World Chil­dren’s Day 2021:

To­day is World Chil­dren’s Day, a plat­form to cel­e­brate our youngest and most pre­cious cit­i­zens and pro­mote their hap­pi­ness, free­doms and safe­ty. It is al­so a gold­en op­por­tu­ni­ty for chil­dren to make their voic­es heard on is­sues that are im­por­tant and rel­e­vant to their well­be­ing and hold adults ac­count­able for pri­ori­tis­ing their rights and im­ple­ment­ing the le­gal and so­cial frame­works de­signed to serve and pro­tect them.

One such frame­work is the Con­ven­tion on the Rights of the Child, which is the most wide­ly-rat­i­fied hu­man rights treaty in his­to­ry. The Con­ven­tion sets out the rights of hu­man be­ings be­low the age of eigh­teen, in­clud­ing the right to life, na­tion­al­i­ty, ed­u­ca­tion, fam­i­ly, and to ex­press their views freely and seek, re­ceive and im­part in­for­ma­tion and ideas of all kinds.

Em­pow­er­ing chil­dren to share their opin­ions and par­tic­i­pate di­rect­ly in mat­ters that af­fect their wel­fare sets the stage for a brighter and more pros­per­ous fu­ture. If young peo­ple learn from an ear­ly age the im­por­tance of be­ing in­formed, en­gaged and in­volved in cur­rent af­fairs, they are like­ly to be­come re­spon­si­ble, valu­able and pro­duc­tive mem­bers of the na­tion­al and glob­al com­mu­ni­ty.

On Oc­to­ber 5, 2021, I re­ceived a let­ter from a five-year-old girl named Mok­sha Roy who lives in the Unit­ed King­dom. She re­quest­ed that I ask teach­ers in Trinidad and To­ba­go to teach chil­dren about the im­por­tance of the Unit­ed Na­tions Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Goals, which are a col­lec­tion of 17 in­ter­linked uni­ver­sal goals aimed at achiev­ing a bet­ter and more sus­tain­able fu­ture for all. She firm­ly be­lieves that, “chil­dren can do small things to­geth­er and stop aw­ful things like cli­mate change and plas­tic pol­lu­tion and make the world a bet­ter place for every­one”.

Mok­sha’s ad­vo­ca­cy and pas­sion for help­ing the plan­et is both in­spir­ing and thought-pro­vok­ing. She has stepped in­to ac­tion by writ­ing to lead­ers around the world and urg­ing them to do their part in achiev­ing the sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment ob­jec­tives. Oth­er chil­dren can make a dif­fer­ence in their own way—by turn­ing off the lights when not in use, en­cour­ag­ing their par­ents to re­cy­cle or start a gar­den, par­tic­i­pat­ing in clean-up dri­ves or speak­ing out on is­sues which af­fect them. Many young ac­tivists such as Malala Yousafzai and Gre­ta Thun­berg be­gan their ad­vo­ca­cy as chil­dren and con­tin­ue to stim­u­late and evoke change on the glob­al stage.

I en­cour­age par­ents, teach­ers and oth­er adults, in their house­holds, class­rooms, and com­mu­ni­ties to ex­plore clear and ex­cit­ing meth­ods of ex­plain­ing the Glob­al Goals to chil­dren of all ages and to em­bold­en them to dream up ways in which they too can help save the plan­et. Like Mok­sha, Malala and Gre­ta, we all have a role to play in safe­guard­ing the fu­ture and sus­tain­abil­i­ty of our world.