UNICEF's director in Ireland, Ms Maura Quinn, has urged the Government and the public to be vigilant about children's issues in the new millennium due to the growing volume of violations of children's rights.
Commenting on UNICEF's international annual survey, The State of the World's Children 2000, Ms Quinn said: "If we don't seize the start of the new millennium to solve the terrifying plight faced by our children, then we are guilty of contributing to their suffering and to the wholesale abuse of their rights."
In the report, UNICEF condemned world leaders for what it stated was their failure to protect fully the earth's children. The report claimed a vacuum of leadership had allowed a merciless targeting of children in armed conflict, the transformation of AIDS into the number one killer in Africa, and a devastating fall in assistance to poor nations.
Although there had been many gains since the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, signed in 1989 and ratified by Ireland in 1992, the report claimed the story of the 20th century was also about failed leadership, a lack of vision, an absence of courage and a passive neglect.