UNESCO Janusz Korczak Chair

The UNESCO Janusz Korczak Chair was established in 1979 — the International Year of the Child and the fortieth anniversary of the German invasion of Poland — to advance research, education, and advocacy on children's rights in the spirit of Korczak's framework. Headquartered at various institutions over the decades (most recently with significant activity in Poland, Israel, and Nigeria), the Chair supports scholarship, hosts fellowships, and maintains a global network of educators, children's rights advocates, and researchers applying Korczak's principles to contemporary challenges. The 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was developed, in part, through the Chair's advocacy, with the Polish delegation explicitly invoking Korczak's 1929 essay as the Convention's intellectual foundation. In the AI age, the Chair has become a locus for thinking about how Korczak's framework applies to algorithmic systems that govern children's lives.