UNICEF - the UN Children's agency recently published its annual report on 9th December. Executive Director of UNICEF Carol Bellamy, who launched her 10th report in London, highlighted "More than one billion children around the world face a brutal existence because of poverty, war and AIDS."

The report entitled "The State of the World's Children", pointed out that the human rights of children are being seriously violated according to 1989’s Convention on the Rights of the Child - the world's most widely adopted human rights treaty. It condemned the failure of the governments to live up to the Convention's standards and therefore accused them of causing permanent damage to children.

"Too many governments are making informed, deliberate choices that actually hurt childhood," Bellamy said 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."

The report goes deeply into the research results on three of the most threatening factors to children, namely HIV/AIDS, conflict, and poverty.

Not only is the number of HIV infected children rising nowadays due to infected parents, AIDS orphans have now grown to 15 million worldwide. The report finds, "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." Even worse, AIDS is also destroying the protective network of adults which children rely on.

The impact of war on children is extremely worrying. Research shows that nearly half of the 3.6 million people killed in war since 1990 have been children. The report says, "Hundreds of thousands of children are still recruited or abducted as soldiers, suffer sexual violence, are victims of landmines, are forced to witness violence and killing and are often orphaned by violence."

Working with researchers at the London School of Economics and Bristol University, UNICEF concluded that more than half the children in the developing world are severely deprived of one or more of the seven goods or services essential to childhood: shelter, water, sanitation, schooling, information, healthcare and food.

According to the report, to make a difference to the life of children worldwide is just a matter of choice to governments. It has also highlighted the fact that children are the master of the future.

"...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."

UNICEF urges the government to adopt "a human rights-based approach" to social and economic development, with a special emphasis on reaching the most vulnerable children. "Increased investment in children by donors and governments, with national budgets monitored and analysed from the perspective of their impact on children" is also vital to support the work.