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

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

A century that began with children having virtually no rights is ending with children having the most powerful legal instrument that not only recognizes but protects their human rights.

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

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

What is needed now are increased efforts to promote youth participation and commitment; more services aimed at youth; more parental involvement; more education and information, using schools and other sites; more protection for girls, orphaned children and young women;and more partnerships with people with HIV and AIDS.

It's estimated that there may be two hundred and fifty million children in the world engaged in some form of exploitative child labour.