Source: Palestine Forum of New Zealand
World Children’s Day is observed every year on 20 November, marking two foundational moments in international human rights: the United Nations’ adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959, and thirty years later, the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989. These landmark commitments affirm the world’s collective obligation to safeguard every child’s right to life, protection, education, dignity, and a future filled with promise.
As we commemorate these global achievements, the Palestine Forum of New Zealand draws urgent attention to the children of Palestine, especially the children of Gaza, who continue to be denied the very rights this day was created to uphold.
For decades, Palestinian children have endured conditions no child anywhere should ever face. In Gaza, successive assaults, years of blockade, and the collapse of essential services have left children traumatised, displaced, orphaned, and struggling for survival. Their schools have been destroyed, their homes reduced to rubble, and their futures placed under constant threat. They are children who should be playing, learning, and dreaming—yet instead, they live with fear, loss, and uncertainty.
On this World Children’s Day, we honour their courage and resilience, and we reaffirm that Palestinian children deserve the same rights and protections afforded to children everywhere else. The international community cannot celebrate this day with integrity while Gazan children continue to suffer violations of the most basic human rights.
The Palestine Forum of New Zealand calls upon global leaders, humanitarian agencies, and all people of conscience to uphold the commitments made on 20 November 1959 and 1989. Protecting Palestinian children is not a political stance, it is a fundamental moral and human obligation.
Every child matters.
Every Palestinian child matters.
