When the lives and the rights of children are at stake, there must be no silent witnesses.

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

Here once again education is crucial, it enables children to be become more aware of their rights and to exercise them in a respectful manner which helps them shape their own future.

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.

By ratifying the Convention, governments become legally bound to implement the rights therein.

The economic benefits of investing in children have been extensively documented. Investing fully in children today will ensure the well-being and productivity of future generations for decades to come. By contrast, the physical, emotional and intellectual impairment that poverty inflicts on children canmean a lifetime of suffering and want - and a legacy of poverty for the next generation.

In choosing global corporate partners UNICEF emphasises compatibility with our core values and looks to build alliances that advance our mission of ensuring the health, education, equality and protection for all the world's children.