The State of the World's Children 2005: "Childhood Under Threat"

UNICAIDSEF report shows half theworld's children are  devastated  by poverty,conflict and AIDS.                       

A new UNICEF report shows that more than half the world's children are suffering extreme deprivations from poverty, war and HIV/AIDS conditions that effectively deny children a childhood and hinder the development of nations.

According to The State of the World's Children 2005, "Childhood Under Threat," more than 1 billion children are denied a healthy and protected upbringing as promised by 1989's Convention on the Rights of the Child, the world's most widely adopted human rights treaty. The report stresses that the failure of governments to live up to the Convention's standards causes permanent damage to children and in turn blocks progress toward human rights and economic advancement.

"Too many governments are making informed, deliberate choices that actually hurt childhood," said UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy in launching the report at the London School of Economics. "Poverty doesn't come from nowhere; war doesn't emerge from nothing; AIDS doesn't spread by choice of its own. These are our choices."

Deprivations of poverty
The report offers an analysis of seven basic "deprivations" that children feel and that powerfully influence their futures. UNICEF concludes that more than half the children in the developing world are severely deprived of one or more of the necessities essential to childhood:

• 640 million children do not have adequate shelter
• 500 million children have no access to sanitation
• 400 million children do not have access to safe water
• 300 million children lack access to information
• 270 million children have no access to health care services
• 140 million children have never been to school
• 90 million children are severely food-deprived

The State of the World's Children also makes clear that poverty is not exclusive to developing countries. In 11 of 15 industrialized nations, the proportion of children living in low-income households during the last decade has risen.

A growing war on childhood
Extreme poverty is one of the most devastating effects of armed conflict within countries, especially for children, as factions vie for ill-managed national resources. The report notes that 55 of 59 armed conflicts taking place between 1990 and 2003 involved war within, rather than between, countries.

The impact on children has been high: Nearly half of the 3.6 million people killed in war since 1990 have been children. And children are certainly not immune from being singled out as targets, as underscored by the September 2004 attack on schoolchildren in Beslan, Russian Federation.

Hundreds of thousands of children in conflict situations around the world are still:

• recruited or abducted as soldiers
• victims of landmines
• forced to witness violence and killing
• orphaned by violence
• targets of sexual violence

Conflict has a catastrophic impact on overall health conditions as well. In a typical five-year war, the mortality rate of children under five increases by 13 percent.

And with conflict aggravating existing poverty, the report emphasizes the need for greater global attention and investment in post-conflict situations, to ensure a steady and stable transition to development.

When adults keep dying
The impact of HIV/AIDS on children is seen most dramatically in the wave of AIDS orphans that has now grown to 15 million worldwide. The death of a parent pervades every aspect of a child's life from emotional well-being to physical security, mental development and overall health.

But children suffer the pernicious effects of HIV/AIDS long before they are orphaned. Many children whose families are affected by HIV/AIDS, especially girls, are forced to drop out of school in order to work or care for their families. They face an increased risk of engaging in hazardous labor and of being otherwise exploited.

HIV/AIDS is not only killing parents but is destroying the protective network of adults in children's lives. Many teachers, health workers and other adults on whom children rely are also dying. And because of the time lag between HIV infection and death from AIDS, the crisis will worsen for at least the next decade. The report details the measures that nations must employ to prevent the spread of AIDS, keep adults with HIV alive and provide care for children already orphaned.

Putting children first
The State of the World's Children argues that bridging the gap between the ideal childhood and the reality experienced by half the world's children is a matter of choice.

According to Bellamy, "The quality of a child's life depends on decisions made every day in households, communities and in the halls of government. We must make those choices wisely, and with children's best interests in mind. If we fail to secure childhood, we will fail to reach our larger, global goals for human rights and economic development. As children go, so go nations. It's that simple."