Janusz Korczak's Declaration of Children's Rights

I came across the writings of Janusz Korczak while reading the work of Larry Brendtro. Korczak is a Jewish youthworker from Poland who lived during the travesties of WW2. His biography, The King of Children by Betty Jean Lifton is a powerful portrayal of a man whose life is lived out for others. Korczak is noted as saying, "The lives of great men are like legends - difficult, but beautiful.

Here is an exert from Lifton's appendix on Korczak's work on the rights of the child:

As a children's advocate, Janusz Korczak spoke of the need for a Declaration of Children's Rights long before any such document was drawn up by the Geneva Convention ( Korczak: 1924) or the United Nations General Assembly ( Korczak: 1959). The Declaration he envisaged-not a plea for good will but a demand for action - was left uncompleted at the time of his death. Culling through: "How to Love a Child", "The Child's Right to Respect", and other works, I have compiled the rights that Korczak considered most essential:

• The child has the right to love.
  ( Korczak: "Love the child, not just your own.")
• The child has the right to respect.
  ( Korczak: "Let us demand respect for shining eyes, smooth foreheads, youthful effort and confidence, Why should dulled eyes, a wrinkled brow, untidy gray hair, or tired resignation command greater respect?")
• The child has the right to optimal conditions in which to grow and develop.
  ( Korczak: "We demand: do away with hunger, cold, dampness, stench, overcrowding, overpopulation . ")
• The child has the right to live in the present.
  ( Korczak: "Children are not people of tomorrow; they are people today.")
• The child has the right to be himself or herself.
  ( Korczak: "A child is not a lottery ticket, marked to win the main prize.")
• The child has the right to make mistakes.
  ( Korczak: "There are no more fools among children than among adults.")
• The child has the right to fail.
  ( Korczak: "We renounce the deceptive longing for perfect children.")
• The child has the right to be taken seriously.
  ( Korczak: "Who asks the child for his opinion and consent?")
• The child has the right to be appreciated for what he is.
  ( Korczak: "The child, being small, has little market value.")
• The child has the right to desire, to claim, to ask.
  ( Korczak: "As the years pass, the gap between adult demands and children's desires becomes progressively wider.")
• The child has the right to have secrets.
  ( Korczak: "Respect their secrets.")
• The child has the right to "a lie, a deception, a theft".
  ( Korczak: "He does not have the right to lie, deceive, steal.")

How to understand this:

• The child has the right to respect for his possessions and budget.
  ( Korczak: "Everyone has the right to his property, no matter how insignificant or valueless.")
• The child has the right to education.
• The child has the right to resist educational influence that conflicts with his or her own beliefs.
  ( Korczak: "It is fortunate for mankind that we are unable to force children to yield to assaults upon their common sense and humanity.")
• The child has the right to protest an injustice.
  ( Korczak: "We must end despotism.")
• The child has the right to a Children's Court where he can judge and be judged by his peers.
  ( Korczak: "We are the sole judges of the child's actions, movements, thoughts, and plans . . . I know that a Children's Court is essential, that in fifty years there will not be a single school, not a single institution without one.")
• The child has the right to be defended in the juvenile-justice court system.
  ( Korczak: "The delinquent child is still a child . . . Unfortunately, suffering bred of poverty spreads like lice: sadism, crime, uncouthness, and brutality are nurtured on it.")
• The child has the right to respect for his grief.
  ( Korczak: "Even though it be for the loss of a pebble.")
• The child has the right to commune with God.
• The child has the right to die prematurely.
  ( Korczak: "The mother's profound love for her child must give him the right to premature death, to ending his life cycle in only one or two springs . . . Not every bush grows into a tree.")