Youth and Human Rights, Week 3, Blog #1

The advancement of humans rights is an important issue not only in the United States but abroad as well. A central goal of U.S foreign policy has been the promotion of respect for human rights, to include the rights of children. Because the promotion of human rights is an important national interest, the United States seeks to  promote greater respect for human rights, including freedom from torture, freedom of expression, press freedom, women's rights, children's rights, and the protection of minorities.
As I read the articles, "Executive Summary on UN Convention no the Rights of the Child 2009" and the "Timeline of Young People's Rights in the United States," it was clear to me that though we have come along ways in the promotion and improvement of human rights, however there is still a lot of room from the improvement in the protection of our children around the globe particularly in less developed countries.

The numbers documented in the "challenges of survival and developing" section of the reading were alarming and frightening. For example, the article identifies staggering numbers such as 22 million infants are not protected from diseases by rountine immunization and 4 million under-fives die each year from just three causes: diarrhoea, malaria or pneumonia (Executive Summary, 2009). 

There has been an increased awareness and action being taken to prevent such deaths around the world particularly in developing countries. Recently, the global effort to expand the coverage of existing vaccines and introduce new vaccines against pneumonia and diarrhea was iniated. "At a first-ever pledging conference for the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), donors committed US$4.3 billion, exceeding the $3.7 billion target. The funding will immunize  more than 250 million of the world's poorest children against life-threatening diseases by 2015, and prevent more than four million premature deaths" (Day of the Child, 2011).

References:

Executive Summary on UN Convention no the Rights of the Child, 2009.

Thomas, C. & Cherlin R. Day of the Child: 250 Million Kids To Receive Life-Saving Immunization. June 15, 2001.

Timeline of young people's rights in the United States. (2009, May 17). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.