About a third of children in developing nations miss school because they must work, and the same number say their schools are unsafe. Overall, some 59 million children do not attend primary school, according to UNICEF, the United Nations’ children’s agency.

In one of his weekly general audiences, Pope Francis stressed the importance of promoting children’s rights. The pontiff made an appeal “to everyone’s conscience, institutions and families, that children always be protected and their wellbeing safeguarded, so that they never fall prey to forms of slavery, recruitment for armed groups, and mistreatment.”