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.

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.

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

While the technology revolution has yet to reach far into the households of those in developing countries, this is certainly another area where more developed countries can assist those in the less developed world.

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.

Girls' education is the single best investment that any society can make.