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.

Drawing on reports from the world over, this details the lives of parents and daily caregivers who are striving, in the face of war and poverty, to protect the rights and meet the needs of young children from birth to the age of 3.

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 report tells the stories of the world community unwillingly to accept the consequences of illiteracy or to be denied the human right to quality education. With the Convention on the Rights of the Child as a guiding framework, governments, policy makers, educators, community leaders, parents and children themselves are advancing an education revolution. Their goal - Education for All.

Having a child remains one of the biggest health risks for women worldwide. Fifteen hundred women die every day while giving birth. That's a half a million mothers every year. UNICEF's flagship publication, The State of the World's Children 2009, addresses maternal mortality, one of the most intractable problems for development work.The difference in pregnancy risk between women in developing countries and their peers in the industrialised world is often termed the greatest health divide in the world. A woman in Niger has a one in seven chance of dying during the course of her lifetime from complications during pregnancy or delivery. That's in stark contrast to the risk for mothers in America, where it's one in 4,800 or in Ireland, where it's just one in 48,000. Addressing that gap is a multidisciplinary challenge, requiring an emphasis on education, human resources, community involvement and social equality. At a minimum, women must be guaranteed antenatal care, skilled birth attendants and emergency obstetrics, and postpartum care. These essential interventions will only be guaranteed within the context of improved education and the abolition of discrimination.

The State of the World's Children 2007 reports on the lives of women around the world because gender equality and the well-being of children go hand in hand. When women are empowered to live full and productive lives, children prosper and UNICEF's experience also shows the opposite: When women are denied equal opportunity within a society, children suffer. The report is divided into five sections: a call for equality; equality in the household; equality in employment; equality in politics and government; reaping the double dividend of gender equality.

The 2008 report examines the state of child survival and primary health care for children, with a strong emphasis on trends in child mortality.

The State of the World's Children 2011: Adolescence - An Age of Opportunity examines the global state of adolescents; outlines the challenges they face in health, education, protection and participation; and explores the risks and vulnerabilities of this pivotal stage. The report highlights the singular opportunities that adolescence offers, both for adolescents themselves and for the societies they live in. The accumulated evidence demonstrates that investing in adolescents' second decade is our best hope of breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty and inequity and of laying the foundation for a more peaceful, tolerant and equitable world.