I will continue to point out that all, from the most prominent international organizations to local associations, from Heads of State to ordinary citizens, in everyday actions and at the most significant moments of life, are called upon to make a contribution to peace and to give no support to war. Millions of children suffer from other kinds of violence present both in poverty-stricken and in developed societies. These kinds of violence are often less obvious, but they are no less terrible. The International Summit for Social Development which took place this year in Copenhagen stressed the connection between poverty and violence,and on that occasion States committed themselves to a greater battle against poverty through initiatives at the national level, beginning in 1996. Similar suggestions were made by the earlier World Conference of the United Nations on Children, held in New York in 1990.
Poverty is indeed the cause of inhuman living and working conditions.
In some countries children are forced to work at a tender age and are often badly treated, harshly punished, and paid absurdly low wages. Because they have no way of asserting their rights, they are the easiest to blackmail and exploit. In other circumstances children are bought and sold, so that they can be used for begging or, even worse, forced into prostitution, as in the case of so-called sex tourism. This utterly despicable trade degrades not only those who take part in it but also those who in any way promote it. Some do not hesitate to enlist children in criminal activities, especially the selling of narcotics, thus exposing them to the risk of personal involvement in drug use.