Bethlehem - Ma'an - Sports and music events hosted by UNICEF and Right to Play will mark the 20th anniversary of Palestine's adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child on Friday, the UN International Children's Day.

Hundreds of children in Ramallah, Hebron, Jenin and Nablus will mark the occasion with concerts, road races, theater performances, football matches and kids games.

In Israel, however, a decision by the Ministry of Education not to hold any special activities this year to mark Universal Children's Day, was pushed through earlier in the week, a Wednesday report from Haaretz noted.

The Convention entered into force in Israel in November 1991, but Israel denies its applicability Palestinian areas, as with most other international treaties, according to Defense for Children International. The Israeli argument is that ratification of the treaty was intended for the protection of nationals from their own government in times of peace, and do not apply to the current situation in Palestine.

According to experts at DCI, "[the] international community widely accepts the applicability of international human rights law to situations of armed conflict and occupation, and Israel therefore has a moral and legal obligation to uphold international human rights standards in its administration of the [Palestinian] territory."

Because Palestine is not a full state member of the UN, it cannot independently ratify the convention. The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) representative to the UN, however, endorsed the convention in 1995.