Carol Bellamy quotes:

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.

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.

New legislation has just been adopted by the International Labour Organization on the Worst Forms of Child Labor, such as bonded labour, prostitution and hazardous work.

For example, UNICEF works with governments to change legislation such as in India where a law was passed raising the age of compulsory school completion to keep children in school and away from the workplace for longer.

Corporate partners help UNICEF fund our programmes for children, advocate with us on their behalf, or facilitate our work through logistical, technical, research or supply support.

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.

Northern Uganda presents a situation of extraordinary violation of the rights of children.

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

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

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

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

And most importantly perhaps, children can learn about their rights, share their knowledge with the children of other nations, identify problems with them and establish how they might work together to address them.

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

Instant telecommunication allows better and updated information, lessons learnt and problems encountered to be exchanged and debated, it alerts us more quickly to problems and brings to many households around the world visions and information which hopefully spur us to action.

The dream of the Convention was born from the that children and their needs were not been considered when policies were being made, laws passed or actions undertaken.

Nor is the suffering limited to children in developing countries.

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.

In working with UNICEF our corporate partners have demonstrated time and again that their financial resources, leadership and expertise can bring about real and lasting benefits for the world's children.

I think tremendous change has taken place since the World Summit for Children in 1990.

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

Learn all you can about people in other parts of the world. Understanding how people in other countries live and work and play teaches us to respect them and promote peace everywhere.

Girls Scouts taught me to succeed (cookie selling) and to fail (knot tying) and to learn and benefit from both.

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...

Thus the Convention is unequivocal in its call for children to be consulted, to have their opinions heard and to have their best interests considered when law and policies are being drafted.

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.

I came into a strong organization, and I hope I strengthened it more and expanded its capacity to deal with some of the challenges that might not have seemed as great 10 years ago, such as H.I.V., AIDS and children affected by war.

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

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.

Creating a world that is truly fit for children does not imply simply the absence of war... It means having primary schools nearby that educate children, free of charge... It means building a world fit for children, where every child can grow to adulthood in health, peace and dignity.

For example, UNICEF works with governments to change legislation such as in India where a law was passed raising the age of compulsory school completion to keep children in school and away from the workplace for longer."

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.

...in serving the best interests of children, we serve the best interests of all humanity.

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

Sport can be used for messaging, for example, making the connections between shin guards or a helmet that protects you, and protection in terms of HIV and AIDS. There has also been a very active program in Africa called 'Kick Polio out of Africa,' where soccer players have spoken out in terms of polio. There is also going to be a swim for malaria.

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