On World Children’s Day, let’s recognize that children’s rights include mental health

In a Spring 2022 survey of parents with kids between ages six and 17 years, more than 50 per cent perceived that their child had needed help regarding their emotional or behavioural problems in the past six months. (Shutterstock)

World Children’s Day is Nov. 20, when we celebrate the importance of children’s rights and of safeguarding adequate physical, mental, spiritual and social development for every child around the world.

These rights, laid out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, should be universally accepted and supported, but this is often not the case for many children around the globe, even in wealthy nations such as Canada. In fact, Canada continues to fall behind regarding the mental health and well-being of children, ranking 30th out of 38 wealthy nations in UNICEF’s 2020 report card on the state of children and youth worldwide.