World Children's Day is celebrated annually in Portugal, on June 1st. The celebration of this day dates back to 1950, when the Women's International Democratic Federation (WIDF) proposed to the United Nations (UN) the creation of a day specially dedicated to children around the world.

This proposal emerged from the end of World War II, in 1945, which raised social and humanitarian concerns across Europe, with a particular focus on children. Since then, the urgent need to create institutions to protect children has become clear, leading the UN to the creation of UNICEF, in 1946, with the mission to provide emergency assistance to European children in the post-war scenario. This concern was later reflected officially in two key documents that provide to this day a set of fundamental children's rights that must be respected worldwide:

• The Declaration of the Rights of the Child, adopted on the 20th of November 1959 by the UN, composed of 10 Principles.

• The Convention on the Rights of the Child , adopted on 20th November 1989 by the UN. This legal and universal document, composed by 54 Articles was ratified by Portugal on the 21st of September 1990.

Nowadays, the main concern worldwide are the scenarios where children are victims of war conflicts, natural disasters and emergencies, including all children who suffer from abuse, hunger, who are forced to work and those who do not get the opportunity to go to school. According to the UNICEF, the main countries where the most serious situations currently occur are: Syria, South Sudan, Central African Republic, Afghanistan, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, Somalia and Yemen.