Our history

To achieve and protect the rights of children worldwide

For more than 100 years, Save the Children has sought to secure positive and lasting change in children’s lives through child-rights advocacy and establishing mechanisms relating to humanitarian crises, human rights, health, education and migration.

Eglantyne Jebb, Save the Children’s founder and pioneering British social reformer, first drafted the Declaration on the Rights of the Child in 1923 that was to later inspire the UN Convention on Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

The Geneva Office was initially established by Save the Children to influence the drafting of the UNCRC and to later follow-up on its implementation. 100 years ago Eglantyne Jebb had a vision: To achieve and protect the rights of children worldwide.

Eglantyne was driven by the belief that all children – whoever they are, wherever they are – have the right to a healthy, happy, fulfilling life. Her vision continues to guide Save the Children and its entities well into the 21st century.