Children’s Rights: A commitment beyond debate

Yesterday was World's Children’s Day. On this occasion, Valérie Oberlé, Chief Executive Officer of the Lëtzebuerger Kannerduerf Foundation, shares her perspective on this essential issue and reaffirms the importance of a collective commitment to protecting and promoting children’s well-being.

November 20: World Children’s Day. Every year, this date returns like a call to our collective conscience, a mirror held up to us. It reminds us that children are not only the future: they are our most fragile present, the one that often reveals the truth of our society, despite ourselves.

“Childhood is a weave of fragile forces: if we protect them, they become wings.” — Boris Cyrulnik

We should read this sentence slowly; almost let it breathe within us. Childhood is not a simple territory. It is made of impulses and tremors, of curiosity and fears, of promises and vulnerabilities. What we do, or fail to do, to protect these fragile forces determines how they will one day turn into wings.

Even in a stable, structured and prosperous country like ours, childhood remains a delicate whole, exposed to silences, neglect, and sometimes invisible wounds. We would like to believe that children’s rights are self-evident. But rights are only alive if we make them live. Protection is real only if we practice it. Care exists only if we choose it.

Despite all the texts, conventions, and campaigns, we know that some children remain on the margins of the carefree life they should have. That is precisely why this November 20 is not a mere ritual, but necessary and firm reminder of our responsibility.

For an organization like ours, placing children’s rights at the center is not a matter of positioning, but an ethic. Every child we support carries a unique story, a singular path. It is up to us to be guardians of that story, protectors of that path, and responsible witnesses of that growth.

We owe every child an environment that reassures, encourages, listens, and respects. A space where they can make mistakes without fear, ask questions without shame, dream without limits. A space where their dignity is not only preserved but recognized as self-evident.

This responsibility does not rest solely on procedures; it rests on people. On the teams who, every day, reach out, explain, soothe, observe, prevent, protect. Child protection is a daily work, made of adjustments, presence, coherence and attentive looks.

The answer to this challenge lies in our hands, in our actions, in our vigilance, in our collective ability to choose care rather than merely denounce abuse.

The words I use are not an injunction; they are a compass that guides us. They remind us that protection is never a given, but a living commitment. That it is built day after day, gesture after gesture.

November 20: a reminder, a call, a promise

On this World’s Children’s Day, we want to clearly reaffirm what lies at the heart of our mission. We choose commitment and trust. We choose responsibility. We choose courage. We choose to protect every child, every young person, without compromise.

Protecting childhood is not only fulfilling our mission; it is shaping the world we will leave behind. It is accepting that every gesture counts, that every presence reassures, that every attentive look builds a trust that can change a life.

As we reaffirm our commitment, it is right to remember other words that also resonate like a moral compass:

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.” — Nelson Mandela

As November 20 reminds us of what is essential, may we continue to reveal the best of our society. May we, together, ensure that every child is welcomed with respect, surrounded by kindness, protected without condition.

And may we, above all, keep in mind this simple and immense promise: to make every childhood a land of carefree joy, where fragile forces can truly become wings.