News 2009

Back The child’s right to respect: new publication on Janusz Korczak’s work

Strasbourg, 16/11/2009 – On the initiative of Commissioner Hammarberg, the Council of Europe published today the book "Janusz Korczak – The child's right to respect" which contains a series of five lectures held across Europe from 2007 to 2009.

The publication presents an English translation of one of Korczak's best-known texts, The Child's Right to Respect, which contains a summary of his thinking on the relationship between children and adults. The text is introduced by Sven Hartman, Professor of Pedagogy at Stockholm University. The publication also contains a moving testimony of Irena Sendlerova, a woman who herself saved children from Nazi brutalities in the Warsaw Ghetto and who saw Korczak, his colleagues and all the children from the orphanage "My home" being marched to their death.

The publication also features the views of five child rights experts on current challenges in the field of children's rights. In their lectures, which are dedicated to Janusz Korczak, they focus on areas of prime importance for children, such as: the principle of the best interests of the child; the necessity to be protected against corporal punishment; children and prisons; children and institutional care; and respecting the views of children.

All lectures propose further work in the spirit of Janusz Korczak and his message of respect for children,