The United Nations has decided that the world's 2 billion youngest citizens need healthier, more peaceful lives. To do that, member states last week cobbled together an action plan that sets ambitious goals -- yet failed to create a consensus on how to get there. It will take considerably more than lofty rhetoric and good intentions to make the world a better and safer place for children.

In an era of unprecedented wealth, 1.2 billion people -- half of whom are children -- live on less than $1 a day. Even in the world's richest countries, one in six children lives below the poverty line. Nearly 11 million children die each year before the age of 5, many from preventable causes. A lack of basic health care and drinking water are the primary contributors to this deplorable situation. Nearly 150 million children are malnourished, and 120 million do not go to school. By 2000, an estimated 13 million children had lost one or both parents to AIDS.

During the 1990s, armed conflicts killed some 2 million children, and left millions more physically and psychologically scarred. About 300,000 children are fighting in wars around the globe. At least 10,000 others are killed or wounded by land mines each year. About 250 million between the ages of 5 and 14 work, and the International Labor Organization estimates that 50 million to 60 million work in intolerable conditions. About 30 million children each year are exploited or involved in sexual trafficking and abuse.