Chidlren's Rights Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

From the perspective of a local community, understanding social networks and relationships within communities can inform research of local bias, discrimination and inter-related accepted community behaviours. The cycle of deprivation of generations remaining on government social benefits displays an attitude that not working is acceptable. People born into such a culture of non-work may well react very differently by having aspirations to improve themselves, through parents encouraging and supporting their children to do well academically to obtain good jobs. Encouraging spontaneous changes through local activism is more effective than any imposed by outsiders, e.g. central Government. This is because effective empowerment of local communities, for instance by taking ownership of practical relevant interventions; living by a set of rules and principles, allows for more civilised behaviours within society. Local people must take responsibility. However, if not handled sensitively, carefully, with appropriate in-depth ethnographic local knowledge, it is possible to do damage whilst attempting to encourage positive betterment. Activism has played a major role in ending slavery, challenging dictatorships, protecting workers from exploitation, protecting the environment, promoting equality for women, opposing racism, and many other important issues. Social activists build connections among communities and influence social change. Activism combats helplessness and hopelessness. To build self-efficacy we can join a cause such as improving local community or volunteering thereby broadening horizons. We can catalyse a new social contract for education by believing in change and bringing about large-scale change and innovation in education. This can be achieved through connecting millions of individual and collective acts of courage, leadership, creativity, and care. A new social contract needs to overcome discrimination, marginalization, and exclusion. We must dedicate ourselves to ensuring truth, justice, love and freedom and the rights of all regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, age, or citizenship status. A massive commitment to social dialogue, to thinking and acting together, is needed globally and it can start with reforming education. Education is the foundation for the renewal and transformation of our societies. It mobilizes knowledge to help us navigate a transforming and uncertain world. The power of education lies in its capacities to connect us with the world and others, to move us beyond the impossible. Education helps us to believe in infinite possibilities, it makes the impossible possible; it also helps to unite us around collective endeavours by providing the science, knowledge and innovation we need to solve common challenges. Education builds character, broadens horizons, nurtures understandings and builds capabilities that can help to ensure that our futures are more socially inclusive, economically just, and environmentally sustainable. Education enriches our learners and uplifts our schools making communities more resilient. It shows the importance of human dignity, hard work, tolerance while helping to grow. Thanks to education we become caring citizens with respect for our fellow human beings and for all Life. This essay shows that local activism works in real life. Generating waves of social activism can work miracles not only from the perspective of the economic development. Being a good global citizen is not just about voting, earning a living and not breaking the Law. It is about participating in a wider community where learning to behave, govern yourself in an acceptable manner, gain education, promote the dignity of the human person, help the less fortunate, look after the planet and fight crime, is fundamental to ‘self-help’ that gives us hope that social challenges will be solved. We are at a critical moment of transformation of our societies. Are we not? Or, is actually every human epoch on the trajectory of time, an hour of change and challenge and an age of both knowledge and ignorance? If so, then every moment in the capsule history of planetary progress, every relative second teaches us that we must not await to rest, nor to wait, but become doers: ''Seek and savour the things which are above. This duty in no way decreases, but rather increases, the weight of our obligation to work with all people in building a more human world.'' (John Paul II, 2003: 101). A civilisation where people understand how viable cities are and what awesome potential they have. Every city would like to participate in its own way in local or wider, global energy transition by making their own contribution to solving climate change. Creating more green jobs, transforming homes to be energy-efficient, schools and parks into solar, green and clean places, making the cost of energy economically available to everyone, and unlocking the potential that has always existed in cities such as Hull can shine an example for the world. We cannot let our eagerness for progress in energy and in technology outstrip our care for our land, for clean water access and for clean air, and for the plants and animals that share all of these precious, vital resources with us. As President Carter (1980) stated, ''Every time we dig out minerals or drill wells, every time we ignore erosion or destroy a sand dune or dump garbage or create pollution, we are changing the living Earth. Sometimes this change might be beneficial, but we should always change the world in which we live with great care.'' Technological progress should not involve acting against the living planet, passing the tipping points and planetary boundaries; instead it should entail tapping into her awesome powers which are designed for humans but which are also created for our care and stewardship. As Karim Amin (2022) said, ''Nothing in life is black and white and so is our energy transition journey. We know that fossil fuels are no longer the answer but neither is a complete and sudden stop of gas fired power generation.'' Solutions that seemed so evasive, so obscured earlier now appear effortlessly, they become to gain a clear, visible shape, ''The bond of our common humanity is stronger than the divisiveness of our fears and prejudices. God gives us the capacity for choice. We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace. We can make these changes – and we must.'' (Carter, 2002). We all have the duty, a global responsibility - to ourselves and to our descendants, to the environment and to the world itself - to protect and restore nature, clean our air, revive our oceans, build a waste-free world, conserve and preserve, to reuse, but above all, to think before we act, and always to care. As President Carter (1980) noted, ''But we must never forget that as vast and dark and forbidding as the forests may seem, they are very fragile; and as wide and as boundless as the oceans may, they are quite vulnerable. For all that the Earth has given us, we owe it our respect and, more importantly, our understanding. We are the stewards of an irreplaceable environment. That is an awesome task as well as a precious gift.'' By tapping into the boundless talent of our city we can transform it to become 'a city worthy of man' built in dignity and partnership with all peoples since culture is shining torch of civilization. By tapping into infinite forces of nature e.g. earth, solar, wind, water and heart we can build a green port with a brighter and carbon neutral future for all generations. Everything humans have needed to survive, and thrive was provided by the natural world around us: food, water, medicine, materials for shelter, and even natural cycles such as climate and nutrients. Despite Earth's enormous powers, the true power comes from within peoples and their ability to pass the baton of progress to next generations. The ultimate responsibility of saving the planet rests with the people of Earth based on humane coexistence in justice, peace, freedom and solidarity. Governments can limit climate change by following wise policy choices, divesting away from fossil fuels towards renewables so that private capital can follow. If we can transform one settlement, we can also change a village, and if we can do the same with a town, then we can uplift a country, then all countries, and equally a civilization. Hope is such a transformational energy that illuminates with infinite solutions. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Only a faithful person who rules his spirit in temperance and hope can help educate young generations of children, the young 'leaders of tomorrow' who in the world of tomorrow will make the great decisions, who are our future and who are yet to become more caring about natural environment and planet and more aware of the amazing possibilities that it encompasses.