Children's Literature and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The theme of this keynote address was the importance of diversity in the choices of books for young readers. From groups across the political spectrum, there are in India as well as in countries such as Australia, continuing calls for the censoring of the syllabus. The address demonstrated that if we review the adaptation for children of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we have allowed a surprising number of its principles to be compromised in the attempt to strengthen national borders, and in the fight against online pornography, drugs and terrorism. While not diminishing the importance of personal safety, the address argued that in order to promote social justice, we should offer more rather than fewer choices in reading.