Hi Stube HEMAT Indonesia students! I am Samueli Hia from Stube HEMAT Bengkulu. I am a second-semester student at Arastamar Theological College of Bengkulu. This is my first time join Stube HEMAT Bengkulu. I got this opportunity from my Lecturer, Made Nopen Supardi, S. Th. (Saturday, 19/03/2022), from 3.00-5.00 p.m. The discussion theme was Women and Children’s Protection, with a sub-theme Children’s Rights According to Internasional and Indonesian Conventions by Ariani Narwastujati, S.Pd., S.S., M.Pd, Executive Director of Stube HEMAT. This discussion was held online (Yogya-Bengkulu) because of the increasing cases of Omicron, the Covid-19 variant.

I summarize what I learned from the discussion. The speaker talked about Children’s Rights so the discussion informed the participants about what children deserved to get from their families or society. In addition to the definition of a child that’s between 0-18 years old, the speaker also conveyed The Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989 by UNICEF, which produced 54 chapters on Children’s Rights, such as no discrimination against children, getting the best attention, protection, guidance, rights to live, get a name, identity, living with family, communicating with families from different countries, protect children from kidnapping, respect for children’s perspectives, sharing thoughts freely, free of thought and religion, having a community (group), protecting children’s privacy, getting access to information, getting responsibility from parents, protection from violence, protected orphans, adoption and other.

Finally, November 20th was appointed as International Children’s Day. From the chapters of the convention of the International Children’s rights above, the Indonesian government adopted and summarized them into 10 Children’s Rights, which include:

1. Right to play
2. Right to have Education
3. Right to have Protection
4. Right to get Name (Identity)
5. Right to get National Status
6. Right to get Food
7. Right to Access Health
8. Right to have Recreation
9. Right to get Equality
10. Right to have a role in Development

The discussion gave me a new insight how to understand the rights of the children which need to be fulfilled either by adults, parents, or related institutions. This insight becomes a provision for me to be actively involved in children's protection by paying attention to their rights. ***