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Rev. Tekle Ayele blesses the congregation's children as they gather around the altar during Sunday service at the Finfinne Oromo Mekane Yesus Congregation of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus. Photo: Albin Hillert/LWF

Rev. Tekle Ayele blesses the congregation's children as they gather around the altar during Sunday service at the Finfinne Oromo Mekane Yesus Congregation of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus. Photo: Albin Hillert/LWF

The World Council of Churches Executive Committee, in a statement, observed the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

"By adopting the CRC on 20 November 1989, world leaders made a promise to all children, to respect, protect and fulfil their rights,” the statement reads. “The CRC has gone on to achieve almost universal consensus, with only one country having refrained from ratifying it.”

The Churches’ Commitments to Children have provided the ecumenical movement with a new framework for churches’ own action for the rights and wellbeing of children, the statement observes, further inviting churches to “take up their role in ensuring the full range of obligations in the CRC and the ‘Churches’ Commitments to Children’ are fulfilled in the lives of children around the world.”

Read full statement

WCC's engagement for children