CNT: How has travel affected you?

Queen Rania: Travel has underlined the futility of fighting over religious and cultural disparities. Mothers in Sierra Leone want to deliver healthy babies just like mothers in Sweden. Fathers in China want to earn money like fathers in Tunisia. Graduation day is as big in Abu Dhabi as in America.

CNT: Children in many troubled places in the Middle East are in crisis. What can be done?

Queen Rania: It's something that worries me a lot as a mother of four. In Palestine and Iraq, humanitarian conditions are being pushed to the brink of collapse. Children's rights are being violated—whether it is the right to health care, education, safe water, or the chance to just be children. In the climate of indiscriminate violence, children are being exposed to damaging levels of anxiety and stress. The fighting must stop. These children need peace and stability. The international community must commit to assistance and action before it's too late.

CNT: What's the first step?

Queen Rania: Education. It can lay the foundation for lasting peace and development by providing youths with skills to build their countries. If education is missing for years during conflict, then there is nobody to establish peace, civic society, and the economic prosperity needed to create a future. That's why the situation in Palestine is particularly bleak—there are generations who have never known peace. We need the international community to rally together and broker peace for our region. Our children's futures are at stake.