There are 2.1 billion children and youth (0-7 is childhood, 8-17 is adolescence) in the world. Eight hundred million children go to bed hungry every night. Seven hundred million children possess no form of birth certification, depriving them of benefits such education or health care. Hundreds of millions of children suffer from various forms of neglect. Five hundred million children cannot read. Two hundred and fifty million children ages 4-14 are forced to work. As estimated 200 million children experience physical violence and abuse. One hundred and eighty three million children are moderately or severely under weight. There are ten million children traumatized by war and conflict, six million injured from war and two million killed by war in the last decade. Forty thousand children die daily from preventable causes.

In the United States the individual and institutional violence against children is unmatched by any industrial democracy. By the time a child finished elementary school they will have been exposed to 100,000 violent media events. Three million children are suspected of victimization from child abuse and neglect. US children under fifteen are 12 times more likely to die of gunfire, sixteen times more likely to be murdered by a gun and eleven times more likely to commit suicide than a European child. The United States has a higher proportion of children living in poverty than any industrial democracy. And the United States is the punishment, and incarceration capital of the world for children. In no democracy at no time anywhere have people more proclaimed their love for children and done so much to demonstrate their disregard. To paraphrase R. D. Laing, "we are effectively destroying our (children) with violence masquerading as love."

It appears that none of the most important Year 2000 goals established by the Plan of Action of the World Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children in 1990 have been met. From September 18-21, 2001, the United Nations will convene a Special Session on Children, to review progress. But if the truth be told, the story will be one step forward and two steps backward. Everywhere children are denied basic human needs and human rights promised to adults. For example, corporal punishment against children is often sanctioned yet prohibited against women.

There are at least three reasons why children bear the violent burden of globalization. First, is the denial, delusion and deception regarding violence and children. Violence against children is the least reported and most under reported form of violence. We declare "children are our future" and ignore their reality today. Some claim that it "takes a village to raise a child," and ignore the well being of families or the role of national governments. How often have we heard that "children come first," when in fact they come last when it comes to education or health care? We want children to be "seen and not heard." Athletes and film stars are celebrated while children are ignored. Many adults choose to ignore the violence against children rather than accept responsibility. Second, abused women tend to raise abused children. Children will remain at risk as long as the majority of the world’s women remain at risk of violation. Third, children will remain at risk as long as families are at risk: three billion people live on less than two dollars a day; two billion people living with no sanitation, electricity, one and one-quarter billion people living without clean water or exposed to dangerous levels of outdoor pollution. Nearly one half the children of the world may be living with one parent. We must recognize that the violence by children is escalating because it is a product of the violence against children.

Parents today are more disconnected from children than ever before. While the technical means of communication increases, there is a decrease in the personal communication with children. To change this spiral of neglect and abuse will require major actions to be taken by the United Nations, national governments, cities and communities worldwide. But today there exists neither the agenda nor the leadership to launch a global campaign to reduce and prevent the violence against children. The United States, in particular, continues to refuse to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child, stop prosecuting children as adults, or punishing children at unprecedented rates.

Some of the obvious steps that must be taken everywhere is to insure the legal protection of children, establish Child Impact Statements for relevant legislation at local and national levels, and establish Child Friendly Budgets, that actually put children first. But none of this will have substantial impact if a way is not found to curb the destructive impact of globalization on most families and to turn the promise of cosmopolitanism into reality for families everywhere.

Ultimately we cannot trust adults to safeguard the needs of children. Children must be engaged in the dialogue for human security-in the family, in the school, in the community, in the city, in the State and in the United Nations. It is not the children that deserve our pity, but the adults who refuse to safeguard children.