Chinese-version report on state of children issued on Universal Children's Day

BEIJING, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Xinhua News Agency Friday launched in Beijing the Chinese-version Report on the State of World's Children to mark the Universal Children's Day and the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

(R to L) Ann M. Veneman, executive director of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and actor Lucy Liu and Grace Akallo, former child soldier from Uganda, show "The State of the World's Children" reports to the media during a news conference at the UNICEF headquarters in New York Nov. 19, 2009.(Xinhua Photo)

The launch was also part of Friday's Global News Day for Children aiming at raising public awareness on children's living environments and their development.

The CRC, adopted on Nov. 20, 1989, was the first legally binding international agreement on the protection of children's rights. Its core principles are non-discrimination, devotion to the best interests of the child, the right to life, survival and development, and respect for the views of the child.

At the launch Friday, a video of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's interview with Xinhua was played, in which Ban said, "The well-being of our children is of utmost importance to the United Nations and to the whole world."