Guantanamo.- Pope Francis lamented on Monday, at the opening of the World Summit on Children’s Rights at the Vatican, that the lives of many children are marked by poverty, wars, lack of schooling, injustice, and exploitation.“Increasingly, those who have their whole life ahead of them are unable to approach it with optimism and confidence,” the Bishop of Rome stressed as he received in the Apostolic Palace those taking part in the event organized by the Pontifical Committee for World Children’s Day, whose theme is “Love Them and Protect Them.”
Among the prominent figures attending the World Summit are Queen Rania of Jordan, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Al Gore and Kailash Satyarthi, and United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Chief Economist Maximo Torero.
“Today, more than forty million children have been displaced by conflict and about a hundred million are homeless.” “There is also the tragedy of child slavery: some 160 million children are victims of forced labor, trafficking, abuse, and exploitation of all kinds.”
According to the source, this summit takes place in the Vatican Museums this Monday. There will be a day of debate in the Apostolic Palace on Tuesday, February 4, with two panels, one on children’s rights in the world and the other on the resources’ allocation to help minors.
