The real solution is to improve the incomes of the poor and provide their children with decent education.

Children have in the past and continue to influence policy makers.

The Convention is not only a visionary document. We are reminded daily that it is an agreement that works - and its utility can be seen in the everyday use to which I have seen it increasingly being put by country after country, in policy, in practice and in law.

UNICEF has repeatedly called on governments to ensure basic services for children and this includes providing food where the need exists.

We must ensure that while eliminating child labor in the export industry, we are also eliminating their labour from the informal sector, which is more invisible to public scrutiny - and thus leaves the children more open to abuse and exploitation.

And each of us can practice rights ourselves, treating each other without discrimination, respecting each other's dignity and rights.

You need to get up in the morning and say, 'Boy, I'm going to - in my own stupid way - save the world today.'