It was an historic day: one hundred years ago, on 26 September 1924, the League of Nations adopted the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child. This was the very first official commitment to uphold children’s rights. The declaration laid the foundation for today’s Convention on the Rights of the Child – the world’s most widely recognised UN treaty.

We can look back on an eventful century of child rights. Much progress has been achieved: child mortality has been drastically reduced and the number of children attending primary school has risen considerably. Important laws have been passed to protect children against labour, child marriage and violence. Yet despite these successes, substantial challenges remain: millions of children are growing up amidst conflict, are displaced or are living in poverty.