On 20 November 2009, the global community celebrates the 20th anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the unique document that sets international standards for the care, treatment and protection of all individuals below age 18. To celebrate this landmark, the United Nations Children's Fund is dedicating a special edition of its flagship report The State of the World's Children to examining the Convention's evolution, progress achieved on child rights, challenges remaining, and actions to be taken to ensure that its promise becomes a reality for all children.

The State of the World's Children 2011: Adolescence - An Age of Opportunity examines the global state of adolescents; outlines the challenges they face in health, education, protection and participation; and explores the risks and vulnerabilities of this pivotal stage. The report highlights the singular opportunities that adolescence offers, both for adolescents themselves and for the societies they live in. The accumulated evidence demonstrates that investing in adolescents' second decade is our best hope of breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty and inequity and of laying the foundation for a more peaceful, tolerant and equitable world.

Having a child remains one of the biggest health risks for women worldwide. Fifteen hundred women die every day while giving birth. That's a half a million mothers every year. UNICEF's flagship publication, The State of the World's Children 2009, addresses maternal mortality, one of the most intractable problems for development work.The difference in pregnancy risk between women in developing countries and their peers in the industrialised world is often termed the greatest health divide in the world. A woman in Niger has a one in seven chance of dying during the course of her lifetime from complications during pregnancy or delivery. That's in stark contrast to the risk for mothers in America, where it's one in 4,800 or in Ireland, where it's just one in 48,000. Addressing that gap is a multidisciplinary challenge, requiring an emphasis on education, human resources, community involvement and social equality. At a minimum, women must be guaranteed antenatal care, skilled birth attendants and emergency obstetrics, and postpartum care. These essential interventions will only be guaranteed within the context of improved education and the abolition of discrimination.

Drawing on reports from the world over, this details the lives of parents and daily caregivers who are striving, in the face of war and poverty, to protect the rights and meet the needs of young children from birth to the age of 3.

The report tells the stories of the world community unwillingly to accept the consequences of illiteracy or to be denied the human right to quality education. With the Convention on the Rights of the Child as a guiding framework, governments, policy makers, educators, community leaders, parents and children themselves are advancing an education revolution. Their goal - Education for All.

This report examines nutrition, providing a fresh perspective on a rapidly evolving challenge. Despite progress in the past two decades, around 200 million under-fives suffer from undernutrition. Adding to this toll is rising obesity, which affects 38 million children. All these forms of malnutrition threaten children’s development, while obesity is creating a lifelong legacy of disease. At the heart of this evolving challenge is a global shift towards modern diets that do not meet children’s nutritional requirements. The report provides unique data and analysis of malnutrition in the 21st century and outlines recommendations to put children’s needs at the heart of global and national food systems.

One in every seven children is disabled. Children with disabilities are among the most likely to be marginalized, poor and vulnerable. UNICEF is committed to improving the lives of children, particularly those who face the greatest disadvantages. The report will investigate the web of barriers disabled children face: discrimination, harmful norms and the lack of accurate information. The report will analyse and provide good-practice guidance on: inclusive health and education; prevention; nutrition; protection from violence, exploitation and abuse; emergency response; institutionalization; and the role of appropriate technology and infrastructure