Today, November 20, is Universal Children's Day, celebrating the UN General Assembly's adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child 40 years later.

"The Convention, which is the most widely ratified international human rights treaty, sets out a number of children’s rights including the right to life, to health, to education and to play, as well as the right to family life, to be protected from violence, to not be discriminated, and to have their views heard."

The Convention states that "every child, without any exception whatsoever, shall be entitled to these rights, without distinction or discrimination on account of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status, whether of himself or his family."

Are we building a world, a nation, or even a Commonwealth where these rights are truly honored and protected? If not, what can each of us do to advance these rights for all of our children? Amazingly, the United States became the only nation in the world to not have ratified the Convention when South Sudan and Somalia ratified it earlier this year.

The Children's Trust embraces these rights, and believes that every child deserves to grow up in a nurturing and loving family. Join us in celebrating Universal Children's Day by spreading the word and turning the tide, one by one, family by family, neighbor by neighbor and neighborhood by neighborhood. Let's raise up these rights of all children as a goal we can each dedicate ourselves to, and create the dialogues and actions that will lead to their fruition. One simple action would be signing this petition to the President of the United States calling on him to "send the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) to the U.S. Senate for ratification."