ISTANBUL -- The Syrian refugee crisis has exposed the hypocrisy of a world that promises universal rights and then does little to guarantee them. Today, despite headline-grabbing pledging conferences, the majority of Syria's 6 million impacted and displaced children still go without a basic education.

What do you do after you brought your party's control of government to a dramatic end? You become an international scold and blowhard, blaming the world's problems on everyone else--who have no ability to solve any of them.

LONDON -- Humanitarian aid rests on the belief that a crisis is a short-term event lasting days, weeks or months, not years. From Syria to Sudan, history says otherwise. Faced with life on the streets, children impacted by a crisis need more than the basics for survival. They need to be able to secure skills for the times ahead. And they need hope. An education -- the prospect of being able to plan and prepare for the future -- is most likely to secure this hope.

It would help deal with issues related to child labor, slavery and marriage, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.

Two years on, and their parents still wake up each morning not knowing whether their daughters are alive or dead, married or single or violated as slaves. They surely deserve more than a forlorn hope. The girls are now a symbol of our apparent weakness to protect young lives.