WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is being issued by Ariana-Leilani Children's Foundation International:

I will never forget that the only reason I'm standing here today is because somebody, somewhere stood up for me when it was risky. Stood up when it was hard. Stood up when it wasn't popular. And because that somebody stood up, a few more stood up. And then a few thousand stood up. And then a few million stood up. And standing up, with courage and clear purpose, they somehow managed to change the world. Obama, speech, January 2008

Today is 20th Anniversary of The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, (UNCRC) , adopted by all the countries of the world (193) except the USA and Somalia. The CRC sets out the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of children adopted on 20 November 1989 (the 30th anniversary of its Declaration of the Rights of the Child), adopted by 193 countries, except the United States of America and Somalia. President Obama has described the failure of the USA to adopt children's human rights thought the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) as 'embarrassing' and has committed to change it. (Walden University Presidential Youth Debate, October 2008).

You can't let your failures define you -- you have to let your failures teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently the next time. Obama, National Address to America's Schoolchildren, September 2009

The United States has had many challenges of human rights and people have stood up for the equal human rights for all people. Our commitment to human rights continuously leads us to change. In the US people owned other people as property through slavery until we stood up and demanded a change. Slavery ended in 1865 with the 13th Amendment of the Constitution that declared, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude...shall exist within the United States." Today, the federal anti-slavery statutes were updated in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, P.L. 106-386, which expanded the federal statutes' coverage to cases in which victims are enslaved through psychological, as well as physical, coercion.

Nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change. Obama, speech, January 2008

The CRC acknowledges that every child has certain basic human rights. It requires that member states act in the best interests of the child, instead of the common law approach that treats children as possessions, ownership of which is often argued over in family disputes and separation. The CRC recognizes certain basic human rights, including the right to life, to be protected from abuse or exploitation, to be raised by his or her parents within a family or cultural grouping and have a relationship with both parents, even if they are separated.

Life doesn't count for much unless you're willing to do your small part to leave our children - all of our children - a better world. Even if it's difficult. Even if the work seems great. Obama, speech, June 2008

President Obama will join his predecessors in receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway in December 2008. "Very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," (the Nobel committee citation, Oslo October 2009). President Obama's vision for a better world, his determination to allow it to be a "call to action" and to lead the American people and the world to embrace truth, forge common ground and reconciliation. He is in the company of other great humanitarians, including Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu, who stood up for the human rights of people during apartheid and then lead truth and reconciliation, is actively still committed to human rights.

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. Obama, speech, Feb. 5, 2008

The Little Ambassador, Ariana-Leilani, the six-year old German-American African Jewish optimist who represents all children asks "please President Obama, lead the American people to adopt children's human rights through the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

All of us share this world for but a brief moment in time. The question is whether we spend that time focused on what pushes us apart or whether we commit ourselves to an effort, a sustained effort to find common ground, to focus on the future we seek for our children and to respect the dignity of all human beings. Obama, speech, June 2009

The Ariana-Leilani Children's Foundation International (www.Ariana-LeilaniFoundation.org)

SOURCE Ariana-Leilani Children's Foundation International