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The Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai today draws attention to the serious steps needed to protect child rights not just in India and Pakistan, but across the world.

Millions of children around the globe are denied proper access to education, with some 121 million out of school. Some, like Malala Yousafzai, are directly affected by armed conflict. Government armed forces and non-state armed groups have attacked students or schools in at least 31 conflicts over the last five years, including in Syria, Nigeria, Gaza, Thailand, Pakistan and India. In some cases, armed groups target schools because they see them as symbols of the government. In others, groups carry out attacks because they oppose what is being taught, or to whom.

Many children feel excluded in schools because of discrimination, such as those based on caste, ethnicity, or religion, or because of disabilities.

Girls are risk of child marriage, often compelling them to drop out of school to take on other duties. Many are at risk of sexual abuse.

According to the International Labour Organization, as many as168 million children are employed as child workers, with more than half, 85 million, in hazardous work such as in mines, or involving dangerous chemicals or drugs, that endanger their health, safety, and development. In Senegal, children are forced to beg and live in inhuman conditions in order to attend unregulated and often abusive and low-quality Quranic schools. In Tanzania, thousands of children work in hazardous gold mines, while in the United States they endure nicotine poisoning on tobacco farms.

Thousands of children are serving as soldiers in armed conflicts around the world. They may fight on the front lines, participate in suicide attacks, and act as spies, messengers, or lookouts. Many are abducted or recruited by force, while others join out of desperation, believing that armed groups offer their best chance for survival. The Islamist group Boko Haram has abducted schoolgirls in Nigeria, while the extremist group Islamic State, also known as ISIS, has recruited young children in Syria and Iraq. 

The Nobel Peace Prize to two child rights activists comes 25 years after the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Much has improved for children since then, but much more remains to be done. As MalaYousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi receive their awards, every world leader should commit to concrete steps to advance the rights of children. 

 

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