Queen Rania calls for upholding rights of all children at Vatican’s World Summit

AMMAN — Her Majesty Queen Rania called for the universal and unconditional application of children’s rights, urging the world to reject “a status quo that deems some children’s suffering acceptable, based on their name, faith, or the land of their birth.”

“Whether they are missing their two front teeth or have lost limbs to war wounds, every child has an equal claim to our protection and care,” Queen Rania said. 

Her Majesty made her remarks on Monday while participating in the World Summit on Children's Rights, hosted by the Holy See at the Vatican. Following opening remarks delivered by His Holiness Pope Francis, Her Majesty spoke at a panel titled “The Rights of the Child in Today’s World," according to a statement from Office of Her Majesty. 

After thanking Pope Francis for convening the Summit, Queen Rania noted that the Convention for the Rights of the Child, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989, has since become the most widely-ratified human rights treaty in history.

“In theory, the consensus is clear: every right, for every child,” she said. “Yet, so many children around the world are excluded from its promise – particularly in warzones. Worse yet, people have grown desensitized to their pain.”

Queen Rania explained that one in six children on Earth now live in areas affected by conflict, where dozens are killed or maimed each day. 

“They are robbed of every right – to life and security, but also to education, health, privacy, and protection from abuse,” she said, adding that these children are exposed to humanity’s cruelest impulses. “Our worst nightmares become their daytime.”

Her Majesty decried scenes of children’s suffering that have been broadcast worldwide on news outlets and social media, the statement said. 

“Bleeding and covering their ears after an air strike. Burned so badly their own parents can’t even recognize them. Taking in horrors that have been blurred from our screens for our protection,” she recalled.

 “Think about that. Their lived reality is deemed too graphic for even adults to watch,” she added. 

Queen Rania explained that the youngest victims of war are not only robbed of their right to childhood, but are also “expelled from the realm of childhood altogether,” as they are aged up, portrayed as threats, or dismissed as human shields.

“From Palestine to Sudan, Yemen to Myanmar, and beyond, this ‘un-childing’ creates chasms in our compassion,” Her Majesty said. “It stifles urgency in favor of complacency. It allows politicians to sidestep blame, and put narrow agendas above collective obligations.” 

Highlighting the results of a study released last December on the psychological state of the Gaza Strip’s most vulnerable children that she described as shocking, Queen Rania stated that 96 per cent reported feeling that their death was imminent. 

“Almost half said they wanted to die,” the Queen added. “Not to become astronauts or firefighters, like other children — they wanted to be dead. How did we let our humanity come to this?”

Her Majesty urged the global community to uphold its promise of “every right, for every child,” rather than differentiating between young people based on “where they fall on some artificial line between ‘our children’ and ‘theirs.’”

“Without equal application, global commitments ring hollow. Because, if a right can be willfully denied, then it is not a right at all. It is a privilege for the lucky few,” she said. 

In his opening remarks, Pope Francis underscored that the lives of millions of children are marred by poverty, war, lack of schooling, injustice, and exploitation, stressing that the deaths of children by bombs is unacceptable, according to the statement. 

“In truth, nothing is worth the life of a child,” the Pope said. “To kill children is to deny the future.”

The World Summit on Children's Rights was organized by the Pontifical Committee of the World Children’s Day, which was established by Pope Francis in 2023 to promote the Catholic Church’s mission of advocating respect for the rights and dignity of children. The event gathered distinguished voices and experts from around the world to highlight global challenges to children’s rights that require urgent collective commitment. 

The Summit was attended by Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani, Former Italian Prime Minster Mario Draghi, Climate Reality Project Founder and Chairman Al Gore, and Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi, among others.