This year, the international message is “Staging the Rights of Children: Today, Every Day.” Within the Executive Committee, we have spoken about it extensively, always trying to ensure that our words reflect the global diversity of our network. Because this path can only be travelled together, through dialogue and inclusion. This message places at the centre our fundamental purpose: the rights of children — rights we celebrate today, but which we defend every day of the year.
Staging the Rights of Children: Today, Every Day
This 20th of March we celebrate the World Day of Performing Arts for Children and Young People, an initiative launched by ASSITEJ International in 1999 and which continues to grow today thanks to the commitment of a vibrant global artistic community in more than 80 countries.
For me, this day represents an opportunity to make visible the work we carry out collectively: the daily effort to transform the way we perceive what it means to be a child in this world, anywhere on the planet. I would like to defend the child’s perspective as a counterpoint to a reality that, on a global scale, I perceive as increasingly dark and less humane.
My life has always been linked to art. I have always felt that it is the language of what is to be human — that which names what we cannot yet explain, what we are even before we understand it. We are poetry, even if we have not yet learned to fully reconcile ourselves with our true essence.
Performing arts, in particular, are a transformative force; a powerful tool capable of creating utopias and — I believe this firmly, even in the darkest moments — of changing the world.
This year, the international message is “Staging the Rights of Children: Today, Every Day.” Within the Executive Committee, we have spoken about it extensively, always trying to ensure that our words reflect the global diversity of our network, because this path can only be travelled together, through dialogue and inclusion. This message places at the centre our fundamental purpose: the rights of children — rights we celebrate today, but which we defend every day of the year.
I often ask myself, what would happen if children were able to make more decisions? I think about it frequently, and although there are many challenges, I am also convinced that if we could achieve it, the world would be a fairer, kinder, and brighter place.
Therefore, today I want to make a call: let us highlight the power of the performing arts, let us give more voice to children and young people, and let us do it together. Because reality can be changed — but only if we work together, with empathy, attentive listening, and shared creativity.
