Family – the experience of loving and being loved – is a fundamental right of every child

“Having a family is literally a fundamental right as it is the foundation for a whole range of other rights that a child cannot fully enjoy without a family.” With these words, Dr. Gleison De Paula Souza opened an important panel discussion at the International Summit on Children's Rights, titled Love Them and Protect Them, held throughout the day yesterday, 3 February, in the Vatican Apostolic Palace.

Education, war, poverty, leisure, and family

The International Summit, inaugurated by the Holy Father in the presence of institutional representatives, political leaders, and humanitarian organizations, featured a series of expert panels addressing the urgent need to safeguard children's rights through the relationship between children and education, war, poverty, leisure, and family.

The panel on family, introduced by De Paula Souza, focused on the crucial task of educating adults and fostering an extraordinary, intergenerational alliance. Speakers included Mariella Enoc, Hans Michael Jebsen, Arsjad Rasjid, and Federico Vecchioni, who engaged in a meaningful dialogue on this vital topic.

“When we think about children and their rights to education, food, leisure, freedom, and a healthy environment, we imagine them at home, surrounded by their parents, siblings, and perhaps even their grandparents and uncles and aunts,” De Paula Souza continued in his introduction.

Let us invest time, resources, and energy in promoting the family. Children deserve it!

The Holy See, through the words of the Holy Father, strongly affirms every child’s right “to receive love from a mother and a father; both are necessary for a child’s integral and harmonious development. (…) We are speaking not simply of the love of father and mother as individuals, but also of their mutual love, perceived as the source of one’s life and the solid foundation of the family.” (Amoris Laetitia, 172).

Concluding his speech, the Secretary of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life emphasized what is most important and genuine in every child’s experience: “family is the experience of loving and being loved; it is a fundamental right of every child. Let us invest time, resources, and energy in promoting the family. Children deserve it!”