Gathered during the GNRC 5th forum in Panama, May 2017; faith leaders, government officials, UN agencies, international organizations and grassroots organizations came up with 10 commitments on ending violence against children as well as significant to ending child poverty.
Among other areas, the commitments take cognizant of the need to listen to children and enable them express their views freely, as a way towards addressing child poverty and violence against children.
Commitment 1 explicitly states:
Listen to children with empathy and respect, welcome their wisdom and gifts and continue to work side by side to address violence against them.
This commitment confers upon us a responsibility to create and expand spaces for children to form their opinion and express themselves freely especially on issues affecting them. It also needs of us to take action of what children say by way of ending violence against them and consequently child poverty.
The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is one such opportunity we can take to create and expand such spaces for children while at the same time lobby and advocate for an end to poverty affecting them, based on their views.
Find out more about how you can take actions to listen to children here.