Did you feel special last week, on November 20?
You would have had a reason to. It was World Children’s Day – a moment to celebrate kids’ place in the global community and make people more aware of children’s rights.
To mark the annual event, some cities lit landmark buildings, including the famous Empire State Building in New York, in blue spotlights.
Blue is the colour of the United Nations, the organisation to which nearly all the roughly 200 countries in the world belong.
The United Nations, or UN, tries to push governments around the world to do more for children. Politicians have promised to provide good schools and health care and to stop people forcing kids to work in factories or on farms.
They have also promised to listen to what kids say and what they say they want.
This year, World Children’s Day was even more special because it marked the 30th birthday of the UN Convention on children’s rights.
In 1989, all governments agreed to do more for kids. And 30 years later, the UN claimed some big successes – even if there is still plenty to do.
Among highlights are: the risk for children of dying before their 5th birthday has dropped by about 60 percent since 1989; only about 1 child in 12 is not in school compared to nearly 1 in 5, 30 years ago.
Another change, one that’s harder to put into figures, is that adults seem to be listening more to younger people.
Do you think adults are listening to children today and acting on their ideas?