On 20 November 2009, the global community celebrates the 20th anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the unique document that sets international standards for the care, treatment and protection of all individuals below age 18. To celebrate this landmark, the United Nations Children's Fund is dedicating a special edition of its flagship report The State of the World's Children to examining the Convention's evolution, progress achieved on child rights, challenges remaining, and actions to be taken to ensure that its promise becomes a reality for all children.
One in every seven children is disabled. Children with disabilities are among the most likely to be marginalized, poor and vulnerable. UNICEF is committed to improving the lives of children, particularly those who face the greatest disadvantages. The report will investigate the web of barriers disabled children face: discrimination, harmful norms and the lack of accurate information. The report will analyse and provide good-practice guidance on: inclusive health and education; prevention; nutrition; protection from violence, exploitation and abuse; emergency response; institutionalization; and the role of appropriate technology and infrastructure
Each generation is faced with new challenges - listening for and to the views of children is one of ours. This year, The State of the World's Children focusses on the responsibility of adults to seek out the perspectives and opinions of children and to take them seriously; and on the responsibility of adults to help children and adolescents develop their competencies for authentic and meaningful participation in the world.
The theme of leadership in this publication is related to the role of governments and international institutions in protecting the well being of children. It is in three sections; the first "birth and broken promises", contrasts the reality of the life of a child born eleven years ago with the promises made at the World Summit for Children, held in New York in 1990. The section, "to change the world with children", looks at the way UNICEF has called attention to the plight of children. The last section, "actions that can change the world", concludes that investing in children is the best investment a country can make and that no country has made a leap to sustainable development without investing significantly in its children.
The 2005 edition of UNICEFs annual report examines the key issues which threaten the welfare of children around the world, using the concept of childhood as the state and condition of a childs life. The Convention of the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1989, offers a new definition of childhood based on human rights; yet for hundred of millions of children the promise of childhood is threatened by poverty, armed conflict and HIV/AIDS threaten their survival and development. The report examines these three major threats in detail, and offers a comprehensive agenda of action to combat them. It concludes by calling on all stakeholders, including governments, donors, international agencies and communities to reaffirm and recommit to their moral and legal responsibilities to children.
On 20 November 2009, the global community celebrates the 20th anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the unique document that sets international standards for the care, treatment and protection of all individuals below age 18. To celebrate this landmark, the United Nations Children's Fund is dedicating a special edition of its flagship report The State of the World's Children to examining the Convention's evolution, progress achieved on child rights, challenges remaining, and actions to be taken to ensure that its promise becomes a reality for all children. The statistical tables presented in this volume assist in meeting the demand for timely, reliable, comparable and comprehensive data on the state of the world's children.
Children living in poverty are more likely to have mental health problems, and their conditions are more likely to be severe. Of the approximately 1.3 million children who were recipients of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disability benefits in 2013, about 50% were disabled primarily due to a mental disorder. An increase in the number of children who are recipients of SSI benefits due to mental disorders has been observed through several decades of the program beginning in 1985 and continuing through 2010. Nevertheless, less than 1% of children in the United States are recipients of SSI disability benefits for a mental disorder. At the request of the Social Security Administration, Mental Disorders and Disability Among Low-Income Children compares national trends in the number of children with mental disorders with the trends in the number of children receiving benefits from the SSI program, and describes the possible factors that may contribute to any differences between the two groups. This report provides an overview of the current status of the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders, and the levels of impairment in the U.S. population under age 18. The report focuses on 6 mental disorders, chosen due to their prevalence and the severity of disability attributed to those disorders within the SSI disability program: attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder/conduct disorder, autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, learning disabilities, and mood disorders. While this report is not a comprehensive discussion of these disorders, Mental Disorders and Disability Among Low-Income Children provides the best currently available information regarding demographics, diagnosis, treatment, and expectations for the disorder time course - both the natural course and under treatment.
