Earlier this week, I was invited at the Vatican to be a part of the World Leaders Summit on Children’s Rights, a first-of-its-kind summit, convened by His Holiness, Pope Francis. I always admire him for his unwavering support and friendship toward all those fighting for the dignity and freedom of children, that I can confirm from my several private meetings with him in the past and his public actions.
In 2024, armed conflicts worldwide reached devastating levels, with over 473 million children now living in conflict zones. From Gaza to Ukraine, Sudan to Myanmar, children are dying—by bombs, bullets, and the ravages of war. For the first time in two decades, the number of child labourers has increased to160 million worldwide.
Therefore discussions on, ‘The Child’s Right to Live Free from Violence’, at the Apostolic Palace in Vatican city couldn’t have come at a more urgent time. I agree with His Holiness, as he addressed, “We have tragically seen almost every day in recent times children sacrificed at the expense of power, ideology and nationalistic interest. It is unacceptable. In truth, nothing is worth the life of a child. To kill children is to deny the future.”
Alongside the Pope, among those present at the summit included fellow Nobel Peace Laureate, Al Gore, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee, Giovanni Vincezo Infantino, FIFA President, several ministers, and prominent leaders from all walks of life.
My Address at the Summit
“I would like to express my deep gratitude to Pope Francis for giving us this opportunity at this critical juncture where our children are facing the biggest crisis. When I was listening to the letter the children have written to His Holiness, I am more confident that the children of the world consider him as their friend, not just the Holy Father. People like us also, who are fighting for the dignity and rights of children, consider you as our friend. I joined all of you in clapping for every speaker after every speech. This is because I have faith and trust in your concern and action for children.
But at the same time I feel ashamed. I am ashamed because we are failing our children, every day. I am ashamed to listen to all the data and statistics that I have been listening to and talking about for the last 45 years: How many children are enslaved, and how many of them are bought and sold at prices lesser than animals. They are not statistics; they are human beings.
A few years back, as part of my work, I rescued a group of young children from a stone quarry. They were bonded labourers for three generations. A traumatised eight-year-old girl from the group, who I was trying to console, suddenly put her hand on my back and asked me, “Oh man, why didn’t you come sooner?” She didn’t ask the question because she was freed that day, it was because her mother was raped in front of her eyes, and when her father tried to save his wife, he was scorched by cigarettes. The girl has seen the death of her younger brother in her lap. This was the call of a girl, of a child, not only to me but to everyone who believes in God, who believes in the Constitution, and who believes in humanity. We have to listen to this cry.
I am not talking and repeating all the data. We know the problems, we know the solutions. But the children who are producing wealth at the cost of their childhood and freedom, whose children are they? Children whose cries are not heard, innocent children who are killed in Gaza, Ukraine, Syria and different places in the world, whose children are they? Children who are sold and bought – whose children are they? They are your children, they are my children, they are our children. If we don’t have the connections and feelings for our children, warm words aren’t enough. So, dear friends, we have to go deep into the problem. Rhetorics are not enough. The problem is that we are losing a sense of urgency. There is a serious deficit of moral accountability and moral responsibility. And that is growing.
The gap between the problem solvers and problem sufferers is widening and deepening. We are not really honest to the problem sufferers. The solution lies in the genuine feeling and connection and an honest urge to take urgent action. That is compassion. We can keep using the power of words, but as someone who has been at the forefront of freeing over 1,30,000 children from slavery, I have faced multiple attacks which led to broken shoulders, head and back. I can say from my humble experience as the Founder and head of two largest global movements – the Global Campaign for Education and Global March Against Child Labour, that the business-as-usual approach won’t work. We have to come up with a solution, the core of which lies in compassion.
I am not talking about kindness, mercy, benevolence, empathy, or sympathy. These are good human traits but they are not going to solve the deep-rooted problems, the solution lies with embracing compassion. Compassion is the feeling for the suffering of others with the inner compulsion to take urgent action to solve the problems of others as if it were your own problem. And that’s what is needed in the world. We have globalised markets, economy, data, supply, production, Constitutions, and laws. The world has never been so wealthy and so well-informed as it is today. But our children are calling us. This is the time to globalise compassion. That is why I have launched a new movement, a new initiative, the Satyarthi Movement for Global Compassion (SMGC) to define and launch a new idea of Compassion Quotient to measure and enhance the level of compassion in individuals, institutions, societies and nations.
We have to fight this menace (of child abuse and exploitation) and other crises through Compassion in Action. We have to create a culture of problem solving. Let us globalise compassion because they are all our children.”
