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.
It's estimated that there may be two hundred and fifty million children in the world engaged in some form of exploitative child labour.
Children have in the past and continue to influence policy makers.
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.
Nor is the suffering limited to children in developing countries.
UNICEF has repeatedly called on governments to ensure basic services for children and this includes providing food where the need exists.
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.
I think tremendous change has taken place since the World Summit for Children in 1990.
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.
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.
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.
I think he is an entertainer. I would prefer if he were a performer.
Northern Uganda presents a situation of extraordinary violation of the rights of children.
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.
By ratifying the Convention, governments become legally bound to implement the rights therein.
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.
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.
The real solution is to improve the incomes of the poor and provide their children with decent education.
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.
