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Conclusion
While finishing this letter written by four people, I
want to stress five aspects of this campaign for the Rights of the Child.
a)
I have met Brothers and Partners who were annoyed by this campaign
insisting on Rights. I was told: ‘what
about the rights of adults, of teachers? and the duties of the child?…’
This annoyance can be understood and sometimes has good reason to be expressed.
We must, though, look further on. In fact as you go through the Convention you
realise that the title RIGHTS of the Child does not do justice to the
philosophy of the text. A title which would encompass it completely would be
RESPONSIBILITY of Adults. That is where we must begin. It opens with our
responsibility; then the Rights of the Child; then the DUTIES of the Child are
put down when he has understood he is welcomed and respected. We must not turn
the process upside down.
b) I notice that our
concerns are very similar to those of BICE, with which we are very closely
associated. BICE stresses the psycho-social and spiritual needs of children: education,
family environment, sense of responsibility and education as citizens,
self-confidence and spiritual development. It has also greatly developed the
concept of resilience.
c)
This campaign is envisaged for 2001-2002, but it is very evident that a
continuous commitment is needed in order to bear fruit. This is also the sense
of other campaigns foreseen by the circular N°448 p.29. You will notice that
the following campaigns are seen as a strengthening of this campaign for the
Rights of the Child: the approaches are different.
d) There is one
question. Once the districts have done work according to their local
situations, should we take an international symbolic and political initiative?
We will certainly have to discuss it with the delegates from the different
districts when the time comes.
e)
I would like to finish with a reflection I heard in Madurai, India.
“When
we were speaking about the Rights of the Child, ten years ago, we did it in a
context of demands, and aggressively. Today we have left that attitude behind.
Now we are doing it in a calmer way as a celebration of life. It is not now a
question of fighting but of making people understand that every human being,
and particularly the Child, is a gift of life, a gift to the whole of humanity
and that we have the sacred duty of allowing this fragile plant to grow, to
attain its full being, to go to the end of its celebration of life in itself;
and we have to receive the present which it makes of its intelligence, its
liberty, its responsibility, its zest for life.
To
fight for the Rights of the Child is to celebrate the Life in it, but also to
celebrate the Life in us. That is what the celebration of Life means. Everyone
can understand that.”
I am at your disposal. You can write to me.
Best wishes,
Br.
Nicolas Capelle
Education
Mission Secretariate
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