The State of the World's Children 1997

For more than a decade, The State of the World's Children report from UNICEF has become the best-known and most widely used of all United Nations publications. Published in forty languages, it is distributed to media in all countries at the year's end, and has become both a record and a catalyst for the movement to promote the kind of development that benefits today's children--and tomorrow's world.

The State of the World's Children Report 1997 focuses on the widespread problem of child labor and explores some of the implications of a groundbreaking treaty drawn up at the international Convention on the Rights of the Child--now on the verge of becoming the first universal law. The 1997 report argues that just as no child should die of preventable illnessess, no child should labor in hazardous and exploitative conditions.

While it is impossible to cite a single authoritative figure, it is clear that the number of child workers worldwide runs into the hundreds of millions, many of them toiling in largely unseen tasks. While some of their work promotes or enhances their development without interferring with schooling, recreation, and rest, much of it is palpably destructive. Poor children face such hazards, the report says, because they are exploited.

The problem is complex, but there are a vast range of ideas and a large growing body of experience on how to break the cycle of child labor and poverty. Throughout, relevant education and stronger social partnerships to ease the effects of poverty are among the strategies examined. And the report goes on to suggest steps to eliminate child labor, always taking into account the best interests of the child.