I'm standing at the bank of the East River in New York City, just down the block from my apartment.

The sun is shining, and it's a beautiful April afternoon.

Looking across the river, I can see a building that I've passed dozens of times throughout my life,

the United Nations headquarters. And it's there, back in

1989, that world leaders gathered for the 44th session of the UN General Assembly.

At that meeting, something big happened. The UN adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

We must build on this success by acting this year

to approve the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The agreement laid out a then-radical idea

that children are not merely passive objects requiring parental care,

but individuals with a distinct set of rights.

The treaty said that kids should be guaranteed freedom of expression,

a life free from violence, and access to health care and education,

among many other things.

The convention has become the most rapidly and widely ratified international human rights treaty

in history.

But more than 30 years later, some of the children born from sperm, egg,

and embryo donations feel like they've been excluded from this monumental document. So, in November

2019, donor-conceived activists took their concerns halfway across the world,

nearly 4,000 miles from New York, to another major UN site in Geneva.

Every child has the right under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,

which we celebrate here today,

...