National Palace of Culture to Light Up in Blue on World Children’s Day

Jerusalem, 20 November, 2023 (TPS) -- Landmark building across the world will light up in blue on November 20, World Children’s Day, UNICEF Bulgaria said. The National Palace of Culture convention center in Sofia is one of them.

“Each year on November 20, we mark World Children’s Day to commemorate the 1989 adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) – the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history. By ratifying this international legal framework, world leaders acknowledged that all children have inalienable rights. And they promised that governments would ensure that those rights would be protected and upheld. Unfortunately, children today are living in a world that is increasingly hostile to their rights. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the experience of children impacted by conflicts,” says UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell in a press release.

“We estimate that today, 400 million children – or about 1 child in every 5 – are living in or fleeing from conflict zones. Many are being injured, killed, or sexually violated. They are losing family members and friends. And some are being recruited and used by armed forces or groups. Many of them have been displaced multiple times, risking separation from their families, losing critical years of education, and fraying ties to their communities.”

“The United Nations has verified more than 315,000 grave child rights violations in areas under conflict between 2005 and 2022. And these are only the cases that have been verified which means the true number of violations is most certainly much higher,” adds Russel.