Farrow, adoptive mother of fifteen, discusses how central a role adults can play in the lives of children.

Mia Farrow: Human rights are universal but they are not being realized for the children because the children are vulnerable. It’s easy to sell them, to marry them off, to sentence them to a life of labor.

Adults are not particularly responsible in all situations and they abuse children every way we can think of. So, for us to rise up as a community and say the rights of the child need to be protected, they need to be established, it’s past time that we stand up and do this.

Mia Farrow: People are selfish and children are victims over and over again and this is why, I mean, although almost every nation signed on to ratify the rights of the child. In fact, in practice this is not being experienced by millions and millions of children around the world.

And it’s really incumbent upon us as adults to impress upon other adults the need to respect children and their rights.

And I think a lot of it has to do with simply reteaching adults that just because a child is small and vulnerable you can do anything to that child. But it requires something stronger and that means every government and all but two governments didn’t sign on to it must stand by each and every child and we know that’s not happening.

We must open our eyes a little wider, open or hearts and become more active in shepherding the rights of the child right down to the level where it actually influences every family, every adult, and finally every child.

June 9 2009