Established by the United Nations in 1954, World Children’s Day, Nov 20, promotes and celebrates children’s rights.

Each year, UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, helps organize kids’ takeovers in which children “take over” high-visibility roles in politics, sports and media. This allows kids to raise their voices on issues that matter to them, including climate change, mental health and education.

World Children’s Day also shines a light on international agreements made to protect the rights of children, including the Declaration of the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of the Child — adopted on Nov. 20 in 1959 and 1989, respectively. The day calls on world leaders to honour and uphold the rights enshrined in those agreements.

Access to high-quality health care — including mental health care — is one of those rights. But many children in Canada do not have easy access to effective programs for preventing mental disorders. Effective treatments that involve self-delivery may be one way to improve capacity. To learn more, see Vol. 14, No. 2 of the Children’s Mental Health Research Quarterly.