Putting children first

Save the Children Fund in 1923 and UNICEF in 1990 both declared that children must come first in receiving relief. Whereas SCF's call was a corporate credo for the world, for use whenever disaster struck, UNICEF's was offered as a strategic policy document applicable at all times. In contrast, the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, as a legally-binding document in the field of human rights, omitted all reference to giving such priority to children. The reason for transforming the original credo is that the principle of 'children first', if it includes every child and is to be applied literally in the field, is not only impracticable but unacceptable in many cultures. The social value of a particular child's life--or of human life generally--is simply not an absolute, in all circumstances, in all cultures.