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MORE than one
billion children face a brutal existence because of
poverty, war and Aids, the UN children's agency said
yesterday.
Unicef says the
world's politicians are denying them a true
childhood.
More than half of
under-18s are affected, according to its report, The
State of the World's Children.
Director Carol
Bellamy said in London: "Too many governments are making
informed, deliberate choices that actually hurt
childhood.
"When half the
world's children are growing up hungry and unhealthy,
when schools have become targets and whole villages are
being emptied by Aids, we've failed to deliver on the
promise of childhood."
Unicef and
researchers at the London School of Economics and
Bristol University found over half the children in
developing countries lived in poverty without basic
goods and services. Ninety million were hungry, 270
million had no health care, and 640 million had
inadequate shelter .
But poverty was not
confined to developing countries, with the proportion of
children in low income households in 11 of 15
industrialised nations rising in the last 10 years.
Unicef also
estimated that nearly half of the 3.6 million people
killed in wars since 1990 have been children.
And Aids not only
kills youngsters but also leaves millions orphaned.
Unicef urged
governments to adopt "a human rights-based approach" to
social and economic development
But Unicef and
Bellamy were accused of failing to address the essential
health needs of children."
The Lancet medical
journal said they focused too heavily on children's
"rights" rather than their survival.
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