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

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.

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

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.

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

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