2023-11-26 International Declaration on the Human Rights of Children in the Digital Age — by Julian Gresser
On November 20, 2023 BBILAN’s affiliate organization, Americans for Responsible Technology (ART), presented our International Declaration for the Human Rights of Children in the Digital Age to the UN for circulation among its member nations. As of this writing the Declaration has hundreds of endorsements from distinguished professionals and organizations around the world, and is rapidly gaining momentum. It has been translated so far into ten languages. You can listen to a podcast on the origins and intention of the Declaration with Julian Gresser by ART Co-Founder and Director Doug Wood here (discussion of the Declaration starts 10 minutes in).
The Declaration is conceived to encourage an evolutionary process in several respects. It is based on the premise that the entire planet is a “community” that cares about its children and future generations. Children, animals, and plants in this world do not have a voice to express their suffering. We adults have a responsibility in an expanded legal sense as guardians ad litem to protect all children. As the Declaration asserts, children today are actively being exploited and injured by the purveyors of wireless devices for the profit of a few wealthy individuals, the companies they own or control, and their shareholders. The Declaration is first of all a plea to the entire international community to wake up to the particular dangers of wireless devices, especially for children.
From the perspective of international law, the Declaration is intended as further confirmation by the international community of what is arguably already international customary law binding every country. 195 countries have already signed and ratified the 1990 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, save only the U.S. and Somalia that have declined to sign. The Declaration is designed to be a call to action for lawyers around the world to collaborate in developing a shared body of practice, including scientific evidence, strategies, legal templates, and precedents that can be applied transnationally.
Finally, the Declaration expresses at its core a set of evolutionary principles and values that are critical for our collective survival, namely that the lives of children—all children everywhere—matter more than corporate profits; that there is path of balance, coherence, and wisdom, and that it is our common responsibility and enterprise to discover it together.
We deeply appreciate your support and invite you to sign the Declaration.