The State of the World's Children Report

A special edition issue of UNICEF's flagship The State of the World's Children report, tracking the impact of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the challenges that remain, was released yesterday on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Convention’s adoption by the UN General Assembly.

"The Convention on the Rights of the Child is the most ratified human rights treaty in human history," said UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman. "It has transformed the way children are viewed and treated throughout the world."

The Convention has 193 ratifications, the process by which countries decide to be bound by the articles of an international treaty. It articulates a set of universal children’s rights, such as the right to an identity, a name and a nationality, the right to an education, and rights to the highest possible standards of health and protection from abuse and exploitation.

Guatemala has made progress on some human rights issues impacting children, but there is still much work to be done. Although Guatemala has a medium per-capita earnings, its levels of malnutrition at 43.4 percent compares to countries with low per-capita earnings, this according to UNICEF's Adriano Gonzalez. Further more, Guatemalan children continue to be subject to labor exploitation, victims of violence, poor care and sexual exploitation.

"It is unacceptable that children are still dying from preventable causes, like pneumonia, malaria, measles and malnutrition," said Veneman. "Many of the world’s children will never see the inside of a school room, and millions lack protection against violence, abuse, exploitation, discrimination and neglect."