Children in War 2018-2019

Dr Korczac, Champion of the Child.

Launch and 12 month islandwide touring exhibition.

Champion of the Child: Janusz Korczac.

Date:Thursday 26th April 

Time:7.30pm

Venue: The Lexicon, DúnLaoghaire.

This is the 2nd in our series on Children and War, from the Museum of Childhood Ireland, and our first 12 month travelling exhibition. The exhibition will travel from Dún Laoghaire, to Dublin, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Galway, Athlone, Sligo, Leitrim, Derry, Belfast, and Warrenpoint over a 12 month period, remaining at each location for approximately one month.

Champion of the Child: Janusz Korczak(1879-1942) A travelling exhibition initiative from the Museum of Childhood Ireland, with an invitation to the Irish Jewish Museum and HETI.

Champion of the Child:Janusz Korczak.

23rd April – 7th May

Level 4 dlr LexIcon

The moving and inspirational story of Janusz Korczak who devoted his life to establishing the rights of the child, regardless of nationality or religion. 

Korczak hosted a children’s radio programme, founded the first children’s newspaper and testified on behalf of children in juvenile courts. He worked with the children of Warsaw and died, along with many of these orphaned children, at the hands of the Nazis in 1942.

We’re hosting the exhibition to mark 25th Anniversary of Ireland’s ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

*The exhibition was developed by the Jewish Museum London in association with the Children’s Legal Centre, University of Essex.

Image on poster is courtesy of Korczakianum Centre for Documentation and Research, Warsaw 1938.

Photos below from our launch and exhibition in the Lexicon, Dúnlaoghaire and from the exhibition at the headquarters of the European Commission Representation in Ireland, Europe House, Lower Mount Street, Dublin 2. Credit: Museum

“The Convention on the Rights of the Child owes much to Poland. The Convention’s vision of the child as a subject of rights is inspired by the writings, work and life of Janus Korczak, a Polish paediatrician, educator and writer who reminded the world that children are not people to be, but people of today with rights and dignity, conscience, feelings, reason and opinions. It was Poland that on the occasion of the International Year if the Child (1979) proposed the drafting of the UN Convention, which was led by Polish lawyer Adam Lopatka” – said Santos Pais.   

https://violenceagainstchildren.un.org/news/poland-and-convention-rights-child-celebrating-vision-janus-korczac-put-child-dignity-first

Majella McAllister: mmcallister@museumofchildhood.ie