My Lords, colleagues Chief Justices from various jurisdictions around the world, Your Excellencies, students of the City Montessori School of India particularly those of the World Unity and Peace Education Department of this world renowned School, Mr. Jagdish Gandhi, the School's illustrious Founder-Manger and Convener of the Conference, and his dear wife, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I consider it a great and unique privilege to be one of the honoured guests specially invited to address this august assembly on the occasion of the 8th International Conference of Chief Justices of the World on Article51 (c) of the Constitution of India.

Once more, I must congratulate the conveners of this World Judiciary Summit for their foresight in bringing together the leaders of the Judiciaries from all over the world to deliberate on the urgent necessity of "Safeguarding the Future of the world's Two Billion Children and Generations Yet-to-be-born." by enforcing International Law with a view to bringing about an era of peace and security so as to ensure a safe future for these children..

Last year at the 7th International Conference of Chief Justices I did remind the audience that my country, Sierra Leone, was just recovering from a brutal and devastating ten year Civil War in which the main victims were children. Though the war is now over and the guns are silent our children are still dying needlessly as infant mortality is still one of the highest in the world. Yesterday it was Sierra Leone, today it is Darfur in Sudan, the north of Uganda, the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Middle East and many other war zones of the world where the most cruel forms of mans inhumanity to man are being systematically perpetrated daily against innocent Children.
Even in those areas of the world where there is relative peace and security the condition of children remain very grim and hopeless due to the prevalence of abject poverty, malnutrition preventable but life-threatening diseases such as malaria, sexual abuse and exploitation and the lack of access to basic education.

At the same time as billions of children around are facing such social and economic deprivation government are engaged in squandering huge resources on the production and/or acquisition of weapon of mass destruction.

In the petition by the children of the City of Montessori School of Lucknow, India presented on their own behalf and the behalf of the other children of the world to the members of the World Judiciary assembled for the 7th International Conference of the Chief Justice of the World they had this to say:

"That, the present world situation is grim owing to the stockpile of more than 36,000 nuclear, chemical and biological weapons with many countries, capable of destroying the world several times over and due to the problems of International terrorism, drug trafficking, conflicts between nation, global warming and ecological imbalance, alarming growth of deserts and desertification world over, melting of the polar ice caps and the Siberian peat bogs, threaten our future to no end;

That we, the children of the world feel that in such a situation, our future is not safe and that our elders are not doing enough to save us from such agony and we are continuously living under the danger of total destruction by nuclear holocaust or by global warming and environmental destruction."

It is against this background that the children of my country Sierra Leone join the children of City of Montessori School, Lucknow, and indeed all the children of the world in appealing to all of us members of the World Judiciary, whether or not present here today to do everything we can to make their call for Enforceable International Law a reality.
This includes but is not limited to the strengthening of the United Nations Agencies, international tribunals such as the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, various regional and even our municipal courts most of whom of whom are now empowered to apply international law provisions as part of their national law. Besides, most of the Constitutions we as Judges have taken an oath to support, uphold and maintain contain provisions which guarantee the protection of the fundamental and human rights of all the citizens of our respective countries without any discrimination based on age, sex, colour or otherwise.

It is not enough to limit our efforts to our individual countries. The threat of international terrorism, environmental degradation, global warming and other climatic change leading to an eco-catastrophe transcends all boundaries. As so aptly put in one of our Conference documents, the common denominator is our children and future generations whose welfare should be our common concern.

I wholeheartedly endorse the view that only Enforceable International Law duly enacted by a World Parliament can, inter alia, control such acts of humanity like those currently being perpetrated against the innocent children and other victims of the war still raging in Dafur, Sudan and in other places around the world. International humanitarian law and other forms of international law need to be enforced so as to ensure an atmosphere of global justice, prosperity, security and peace and a better future for all the hapless children of the world. I welcome the appeal of the CMS students made on behalf of the world's two billion children to us members of the World Judiciary to safeguard their future. I call upon all my fellow members of the World Judiciary to join me in pledging their support to this worthy cause and to do everything in their respective jurisdictions "to foster respect for International Law" and make the dream of an enforceable International Law a reality.

Long live the students of the City of Montessori School . Long Live the two billion chidren of the world.