By Dr. Ghassan Shahrour
Introduction
World Children’s Day, celebrated each year on November 20, honors the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and serves as UNICEF’s global day of action. The 2025 theme, “My Day, My Rights,” is a reminder that every child everywhere has the right to safety, learning, health, and dignity. But in Gaza, children do not wake to their day—nor their rights. They wake to bombardment, hunger, and grief, in a world that has failed them at every turn.
“My Day, My Rights”: A Theme Gaza’s Children Cannot Live
The theme asks children worldwide to imagine what their day should look like: a morning free of fear, a school to learn in, a safe place to play, and adults who protect their rights. But a 12‑year‑old girl in Rafah told UNICEF staff: “My day is running… running from explosions, running to find water, running to search for my brother.”
How can Gaza’s children claim their day when every hour is a struggle for survival? How can they assert their rights when even the right to life is not guaranteed?
A Humanitarian Emergency that Destroys Childhood
Since October 2023, the scale of suffering in Gaza has been catastrophic. International agencies—including UNICEF, WHO, and UN OCHA—have documented the following:
• More than 19,000 children killed, with tens of thousands injured.
• Over 56,000 children orphaned, many losing entire families in a single airstrike.
• Nearly 2 million displaced, with children forming the majority in overcrowded shelters or makeshift tents.
• Repeated bombing of schools, hospitals, and clinics, stripping children of safe spaces to learn or heal.
• A sustained blockade of food, medicine, electricity, and humanitarian aid, causing widespread malnutrition and preventable deaths.
Humanitarian workers describe children too weak to cry, infants dying in collapsed neonatal units, and schoolchildren carrying their notebooks through rubble—hoping learning may still be possible one day.
This is not only the destruction of buildings. It is the destruction of childhood itself.
Listening to Children: Their Day, Their Pain
The 2025 theme urges adults to listen directly to children. And when we listen to Gaza’s children, this is what they tell us:
• “I want bread. Only bread.”
• “I miss my toys.”
• “I want my mother back.”
• “Why did they bomb my school?”
• “I’m afraid to sleep because bombs come at night.”
These are not political statements. They are the universal expressions of children whose basic rights have been denied.
One boy was found clutching his school notebook in the rubble, its pages covered in dust. He told aid workers: “I want to keep learning, even if my school is gone.” This image captures the resilience of Gaza’s children—and the cruelty of a world that denies them their rights.
And among them are children with disabilities, who suffer doubly. A 9‑year‑old boy, injured in an airstrike and now using crutches, told a relief worker: “I cannot run when the bombs fall. I just wait and pray.” His words remind us that children with disabilities are not only more vulnerable in war, but also more invisible in its aftermath.
A Lifetime of Advocacy for Children’s Rights
My work over decades has centered on the protection and empowerment of children:
• In 2016, my publication “Stop Violence Against Deaf Children…Toward a Community-Based Approach” addressed the vulnerability of children with disabilities.
• In my 2022 World Children’s Day article, I warned of the impact of war on Ukrainian children and invoked the UN’s Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non‑Violence for the Children of the World.
• Through Child‑to‑Child initiatives, I have long emphasized children’s capacity to contribute to health, peace, and community well‑being.
These experiences affirm that children’s rights are universal, indivisible, and non‑negotiable—whether the child is in Damascus, Kyiv, or Gaza.
Accountability and Enforcement of International Humanitarian Law
For Gaza’s children, rights will remain abstract unless the world enforces the laws designed to protect them.
Human rights organizations—including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch—have documented grave violations of international humanitarian law, including:
• Attacks on schools, hospitals, and shelters, all protected under the Geneva Conventions.
• Sieges that block food, water, and medical aid, which constitute collective punishment.
• Indiscriminate and disproportionate strikes in densely populated civilian areas.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child guarantees the right to life, education, health, and protection from violence. Gaza’s children have been denied every one of these rights.
Accountability must include:
1. Independent international investigations into violations of humanitarian law.
2. Prosecution of grave breaches, including attacks on civilian infrastructure.
3. Enforcement mechanisms—not only resolutions—by the UN and state parties.
4. Mandatory humanitarian access, guaranteed and monitored internationally.
5. Reconstruction of schools, hospitals, and homes with child‑centered and disability‑inclusive plans, ensuring accessibility for all children.
Without accountability, violations repeat. Without enforcement, rights remain theory.
A Call to Conscience
World Children’s Day is not a celebration for Gaza’s children—it is a global test of conscience. If we honor the theme “My Day, My Rights,” then:
• Their day must be free from bombardment.
• Their rights must be enforced—not admired from afar.
• Their future must matter more than geopolitical calculations.
The international community cannot light blue monuments or issue symbolic statements while ignoring the children trapped under rubble and siege.
Closing Reflection
Every child deserves a day of safety, learning, love, and joy. But Gaza’s children wake to fear, hunger, and loss. On this World Children’s Day, let us truly listen to their silenced voices—including those of disabled and injured children—and act with the urgency, accountability, and humanity that their rights demand.
References
• UNICEF Situation Reports on Gaza, 2024
• UN OCHA Humanitarian Updates, 2024–2025
• WHO Emergency Health Reports, 2025
• Amnesty International Investigations, 2024–2025
• Human Rights Watch Reports, 2024–2025
• UN Human Rights Council Statements on Gaza Blockade, 2024
Dr. Ghassan Shahrour is a medical doctor, writer, and human rights advocate specializing in health, disability, and disarmament.
21 November 2025
Source: countercurrents.org