One of the most touching global problems is the suffering of destitute children. In almost every country in the world there are destitute children who are undergoing immense suffering. This suffering varies from country to country but is more pronounced in poor and developing countries because of a lack of human and financial resources combined with low levels of socio-economic development.
A study done by Save The Children reviews  progress in six countries — Ghana, Nicaragua, Peru, the Philippines, Sweden and Yemen. The records of these nations are uneven, but for a decade these countries tried to improve the conditions of children. Agencies created in these countries could well flower and transform the lives of children.
Another weapon to induce compliance is the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, which regularly monitors the 189 signatory nations. A group of experts on children meet in Geneva to study required, periodic reports of the parties to the treaty. The process is far from perfect. Some nations are late, some are not specific in their reports, and, worst of all, there are no legal methods of requiring compliance.
A special UN caucus in 2000 noted that one-third of all births, some 40 million babies annually, go unreported worldwide with adverse consequences to the children involved. There are 300,000 children required to serve as soldiers. Some 130 million children — 21 percent of all school-age youngsters in the world — have no access to basic education. Girls make up 60 percent of that group.
Over 30,000 children die each day from preventable causes, while the HIV/AIDS epidemic has orphaned over 10 million children under the age of 15.
But what is ironic and disgraceful in the face of all of this is the fact that huge amounts of money are still being spent on unnecessary war armaments. Today, global military spending is over US$750 billion. However, of this amount one country alone accounts for US$400 billion. This is the same country which presents itself as the paragon of human rights and democracy, but is responsible for the slaughtering of thousands of children in countries where it is currently engaged in useless wars.
Our late President Dr. Cheddi Jagan, in and out of office,had made persistent calls in the international arena for a five percent cut in global military spending and for that money to be used to wipe out global poverty. However, while his call had attracted sympathetic hearings, nothing tangible has been done so far and from all indications nothing will be done in the near future because huge spending continues in research and development of new and more sophisticated military technology in a world embroiled in outrageous wars.
Here in our country, the plight of our destitute children is also a serious social problem. However, the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security in collaboration with many non-governmental organizations, have been working assiduously to address this problem.
One of the setbacks though is that in many instances the ministry and its allied agencies are unaware of the predicament of children and therefore these children are left to suffer.
A typical example of this was carried in our yesterday’s edition where we highlighted the plight of 12-year Daniel Dilchand of Sophia. It is indeed a moving and extremely sad situation and it would be most wonderful if the governmental and private agencies could join hands to remove young Daniel and siblings from their agony. It was nice to see a neighbour making a wonderful effort to assist Daniel and his siblings.
As citizens we need to look out for the many more Daniels in our midst and try to do our utmost to help take them out of their suffering.

It is, of course, embarrassing in the extreme that the United States has not ratified the convention. Religious and humanitarian organizations in the United States were instrumental in the development of the convention; they were there Nov. 20, 1989, when the U.N. General Assembly adopted this magnificent document on the rights of the child.
Somalia is the only other nation that has not ratified; there is no functioning government in that country.
The Clinton administration from the beginning had urged the U.S. Senate to ratify the convention. Vague rumblings that somehow the convention is anti-family have deterred the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by Jesse Helms, R-N.C., from advancing the treaty. For strategic reasons, the Clinton administration had not actually sent the treaty to the Senate. This denied senators the opportunity to belittle the treaty and its opponents the platform to mount vehement and organized protests. Furthermore, the White House has expressed a preference that the Convention on the Elimination of All Discrimination Against Women be ratified first. That treaty almost received two-thirds of the necessary vote but was narrowly defeated on the floor.
When the Senate ratifies the convention, the United States will be required to present a full report on its compliance with the promises it has made. Then the entire world will know that in America 13.5 million children live in poverty, 12 million have no health insurance, and 13 children are killed each day by guns.
The emergence of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989 reminded the world of the high level of love that humanity has always had for children. The family of nations at the 1990 World Summit on Children pledged billions of dollars to assist children.