The UAE leadership leaves no stone unturned when it comes to protection of the rights of children, ensuring a healthy, safe and supportive environment for children and enhancing their awareness about their rights and responsibilities within the family, society and at the national level.

As the country gears up to mark the ‘Emirati Children’s Day’ on Friday, mothers and children deserve special greetings on the occasion.

As Her Highness Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak, Chairwoman of the General Women’s Union, President of the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood, and Supreme Chairwoman of the Family Development Foundation, points out, the UAE declared March 15 to celebrate Emirati children as a means to highlight their accomplishments and ensure their continued advancement. Children are indeed the creators of the future, the leaders of tomorrow.

The Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood has been taking all efforts to ensure children thrive in a healthy environment, through various programmes, workshops, plans and strategies, alongside local and international bodies.

It was Sheikha Fatima who ordered the drafting of special programmes to empower children, as well as the establishment of the Consultative Council for Children and the launch of the ‘Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood Bullying Prevention in Schools Award,’ to honour the winners in the council’s bullying--prevention programme.

The UAE’s benevolence knows no borders. Children are children wherever they are. Reinforcing this fact, the Sheikha Fatima Global Humanitarian Campaign has also launched a comprehensive strategy that aims at easing the hardships of millions of children around the world, through implementing innovative humanitarian programmes and finding practical solutions to health and social issues.

The campaign is being supervised by senior consultants from local and international universities, under the slogan, ‘Following in the Footsteps of Zayed’, and as part of the ‘We Are All Sheikha Fatima’ programme, as part of the Year of Tolerance.

Several other campaigns too seek to raise awareness about the need to protect children. For example, the Dubai Foundation for Women and children has launched its 10th annual campaign to prevent child abuse, in conjunction with the UAE children’s Day, under the slogan “Protect Childhood”, which will continue till the end of April.

This year’s campaign focuses on raising awareness of the great impact of the parents on their children’s childhood and future, and how every memory will affect their lives, psychological and social stability as they grow up since these memories will last forever.

Interestingly, the campaign sponsored by Dubai Electricity and Water Authorityand the Dubai Courts, highlights this impact by presenting stories and memories of a number of older people in their childhood, and how it remained engraved in their memory and radically influenced their lives.

The celebration of “Emirati Children’s Day” is also another attempt to raise the community’s awareness about children’s rights as stipulated by the Wadima law. These are rights related to the provision of a safe and stable life, where the Wadima Law is an important milestone in the protection of the rights of the child.

As far as the UAE is concerned, the idea has always been to instill among children the values of tolerance, respect for pluralism and solidarity, thus preparing a happy generation. The leadership deserves a salute for such noble efforts.