For Project 4, I decided I wanted to base my topic around children's development and their human rights, as described in the UN document, the Universal Declaration of the Rights of the Child. The reason for this is because I want to become a pediatrician when I grow up and I am very passionate about kids. I have heard so many stories of how children were not always respected by the adults in their lives and of how this negatively impacted their development. For example, many children today are refugees or are in detention centers, face exploitation, sexual violence and more. The fact that they are in these situations is harmful to their mental and physical health and can hurt their ability to properly socialize or function as children and later as adults. In addition, there are also more subtle ways that children's rights are not upheld, like oftentimes, the right to privacy is denied, and this can make them not understand boundaries and consent later on. All in all, society does not always treat its youngest members well and I've always wanted to change that. To do that, I synthesized these two topics to construct an argument about how when children's rights are respected, they can thrive and develop into happy and healthy adults.
Credit: Arief Putra
English
For my English portion of the project, I decided to create visual essay that argues for the children's rights as it pertains to the improvement of their development. To make this project, I looked at the aforementioned UN document and choose a series of rights to focus on, such as the right to education, to right to be protected from exploitation, as well as vulnerable groups of children like refugees and child laborers. I searched for images all over the internet and added them onto a Google Slides presentation. I later made this into an iMovie, but as the file was too large for this website page, I have only uploaded the presentation. I synthesized these pictures along with the statistics and my two topics to further my aforementioned argument. All in all, this was a very sad and depressing project for me to make because seeing the state of children all over the world has made me realize how the system has failed them in so many ways. We need to do better to protect these kids because it is our moral obligation to do so and yes, kids too are human beings.
Art
For my Art portion of the project, I decided to create a painting featuring my favorite Star Wars, Ahsoka Tano, in a refugee camp. The reason why I chose Ahsoka Tano specifically is because I think that she is a perfect example of what happens to children when their rights are either violated and supported. As a teenager, she was forced to take up arms and fight and lead battles. This in itself was a major violation of her rights as a child because it compromised her emotional and physical wellbeing, as well as stripped her of her childhood and innocence. This is an unfortunate reality that is often faced by many child soldiers today. Yet, despite this, her development was also supported because a few of her rights were upheld. For example, Ahsoka did have a supportive authority in her life in the form of her Jedi master and teacher, Anakin Skywalker. Anakin supported Ahsoka by guiding, comforting and protecting her during these trying times to the best of his ability. However, Ahsoka's experiences resulted in her carrying this trauma well into her adult years and because of her involvement in the war and the Jedi, she ended up facing discrimination and persecution. This was another violation of her rights and another instance in which her circumstances were not in her favor as a child.
I thought that because of Ahsoka's tragic and unique childhood experiences, I could synthesize her story with the very real ones of children who suffer because of a terrible system that does not prioritize their wellbeing. Hence, I designed the refugee camp that Ahsoka is in to be very akin to a real refugee camp (according to images on Google). Ultimately, all of this helped me argue to the point that, yes children are human beings, and yes, they do have rights, like any other adult. When we support children's rights, we uphold their development. In addition, it is our moral obligation and responsibility to uphold their rights because as the youngest members of society, they are more vulnerable and susceptible to violence, exploitation and disease.
Below are my sources and research:
Thank you for your time and consideration in viewing this project!