The students of the City Montessori School (CMS), Lucknow, had many misgivings, concerns and apprehensions about present day global problems which affect them and their future. They desired answers candidly from Hon'ble Chief Justices and Judges. Therefore, they were given a rare and valuable opportunity of interaction on 13th December, 2009 with Hon'ble Chief Justices and Judges who came to participate in the 10th International Conference of Chief Justices of the World.

The legal luminaries who participated and dispelled the misgivings of students and replied to their queries in this distinctive interactive session were: Hon'ble Mr Justice Lex Mpati, President, Supreme Court of Appeal, South Africa; Hon'ble Mr Justice S.K. Date-Bah, Judge, Supreme Court, Ghana; Hon'ble Mr Justice B J Odoki, Chief Justice, Supreme Court, Uganda; Hon'ble Mr Justice A P Misra, Former Judge, Supreme Court of India and Chairman Preparatory Committee of the Conference; Hon'ble Mr Justice A K Srivastava, Former Judge, Delhi High Court & Secretary General of Association of Retired Chief Justices and Judges, India; Hon'ble Mr Justice Lovemore Green Munlo, Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Appeal of Malawi; Hon'ble Mr Justice A S Qureshi, Former Judge, Gujarat High Court, India; Professor Magni Martens, Norwegian Food Research Institute, Norway; Finn Tschudi, Professor (em.), University of Oslo, Norway and Hon'ble Mr D S Sengar, Director, Indian Law Institute, New Delhi, India. This unique session was conducted under the guidance of Mr Ratan Chandra Gupta, General Secretary of CMS & General Secretary of the Conference.

The students who got a chance to voice their concerns and listen to the answers and opinions of the distinguished judges to their questions, were from amongst a select group of CMS students in the age group of 13-17. These were the same select students from a group of 92 students who presented children's appeal in front of the distinguished world judiciary, highlighting the present dismal world scenario and appalling condition of children world over, in which they also appealed for redressal of their grievances and restoration of their various rights. This unique children's appeal encompassing a number of pertinent children's issues was presented on behalf of the world's two billion children and generations-yet-to-be-born before every formal session (morning and afternoon) of the 10th Conference.

In all, 18 CMS students raised in the interactive session, a number of issues in their questions that highlighted their distress, anxiety, fear and emotional pain they were in while being witness to the unhealthy state of world affairs. The concerns that the students raised made the distinguished Chief Justices and judges listen and then guide them patiently with their answers. To every question that was asked, the judges were keen in their explanation and sought to dispel the apprehensions and presented factual details of the problems

The 18 questions that were put to the Hon'ble Chief Justices and Judges by the CMS students were:

1. Your lordship, do you think that environmental laws made in various countries are effective enough to protect environment?

—Anjali Singh, VIII C
CMS Mahanagar Campus I

2. Your lordship, is it true that even at this stage, we can save the earth from being destroyed by various human activities?

—Unnati Kala, VII A
CMS Mahanagar Campus II

3. Your lordship, do you believe that we students can bring a change in the world?

—Arpit Kanv, IX A
CMS Mahanagar Campus III

4. Your lordship, can we combat climate change without world unity?

—Ayush Kumar Yadav, IX A
CMS Mahanagar Campus III

5. Your lordship, what in your opinion are the most promising ways to achieve peace? How can we as children contribute to promoting peace?

—Sidhant Kandpal, IX A
CMS Mahanagar Campus III

6. Your lordship, if there are two countries A and B, who are at war with each other, then, is there any world authority which can exercise some control over both the countries?

—Sajal Singh, IX D
CMS Gomtinagar Campus

7. Your lordship, young children continue to work as child labour in many countries. Is there a law to ban child labour completely?

—Angel Dixit, VII B
CMS Gomtinagar Campus

8. Your lordship, why are we not controlling emission of greenhouse gases that have caused rise in world temperature?

—Sakeena Siddiqui, IX B
CMS Rajajipuram Campus I

9. Your lordship, global warming is increasing and creating a bad impact on the environment. What is being done to stop global warming?

—Vaibhav Verma, VIII A
CMS Rajendra Nagar Campus I

10. Your lordship, what are the various steps that can be taken at the grassroots level to reduce pollution?

—Vaishnavi Gautam, VI A
CMS Anand Nagar Campus

11. Your lordship, what role can we children play to ensure that pollution of the world is reduced?

—Mansi Sharma, VIII
CMS Anand Nagar Campus

12. Your lordship, huge amount of money has already been spent on preparing nuclear weapons. Their destruction also requires a huge amount of money. What are the governments doing to ensure destruction of such weapons at low cost?

—Smriti Singh, VIII
CMS Anand Nagar Campus

13. Your lordship, what can be the various grassroots level programmes to increase green cover on earth?

—Manya Singh, VI B
CMS Anand Nagar Campus

14. Your lordship, eradication of poverty requires the combined effort of government and people. What are the various steps being taken by the government to ensure the participation of the rich people?

–Aastha Tripathi, VII A
CMS Anand Nagar Campus

15. Your lordship, is there any law which can promote peace in the world?

—Shipra Shukla, IX A1
CMS Chowk Campus

16. Your lordship, what steps should be taken so that there is advancement of the whole human race?

—Syeda Mariyam Mehdi Zaidi, IX B
CMS Chowk Campus

17. Your lordship, many parts of the world are facing the threat of destruction because of terrorism. Can there be an international law to combat this problem?

—Umang Jaiswal, VIII C
CMS Mahanagar Campus I

18. Your lordship, do you think that environmental laws made in various countries are effective enough to protect environment?

—Satyam Pratap Shahi, VII A
CMS Mahanagar Campus II

The judges highly appreciated the awareness among students of CMS about global issues. They assured the students that their elders are doing everything to ensure that a better, more peaceful world environment is possible. Besides this formal interactive session, the students also interacted informally with Hon'ble Judges as and when they had an opportunity during all the days of the conference beginning from December 11 to 14, 2009.