Keynote
From 1924 to 2024: 100 Years of Children’s Rights in the Face of War

In 2024 we witness the 100th anniversary of the Geneva Declaration which formulated in 1924 for the first time in history the need to–publicly and internationally–recognize children’s most basic rights. Back then the declaration’s 3rd principle demanded that “the child must be the first to receive relief in times of distress”. Between the UN’s most recent endeavour, formulated in its 16th Sustainable Development Goal that “no child should be exposed to violence, abuse or neglect”, and the demands of the Geneva Declaration back then, a series of conventions were formulated and signed throughout the 20th century, hoping to change children’s fate in times of war and conflict. Offering a diachronic perspective on children’s rights in the 20th century, this lecture surveys the history of children’s conventions from 1924 up to today while sheding light on children’s everyday experiences of war and its aftermath. It attempts to tackles the complicated relationship between the violation of children’s fundamental rights in wartimes and the often only then formulated public call for their defense and protection.