I would therefore like to propose tonight that we instal in every home a ‘Children’s Universal Bill of Rights’, the tenets of which are:

 — The right to be loved, without having to earn it

 — The right to be protected, without having to deserve it

 — The right to feel valuable, even if you came into the world with nothing

 — The right to be listened to without having to be interesting

 — The right to be read a bedtime story without having to compete with the evening news or East-Enders

 — The right to an education without having to dodge bullets at schools

 — The right to be thought of as adorable — even if you have a face that only a mother could love.

Friends, the foundation of all human knowledge, the beginning of human consciousness, must be that each and every one of us is an object of love. Before you know if you have red hair or brown, before you know if you are black or white, before you know of what religion you are a part, you have to know that you are loved.