Millions of urban children live in life-threatening environments, UNICEF reports

Asserting that tens of millions of urban children around the world are living in poverty and life-threatening environments, the United Nations lead agency for youngsters said today municipal authorities need to place the best interest of the child at the forefront of their decision-making.

Many urban children live in chronic poverty and are marginalized, spending their nights on the streets where they risk violence and exploitation, says the report, "Poverty and Exclusion among Urban Children," released today by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Innocenti Research Centre (IRC).

"These children deserve to live in a protective environment - one that safeguards them from abuse and exploitation. This was the commitment reaffirmed by Heads of State and Government in 2002 at the Special Session on Children and we need to take it seriously and translate it into action," UNICEF Deputy Director Kul Gautam said at the launch of the report, which coincides with a conference in Florence, Italy, on the rights of urban children.

The report also notes that in 2002, an estimated one billion children lived in urban areas - close to half the world's youngsters. Over 80 per cent of these children live in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and their numbers are growing fast. Many low-income countries still have urban child mortality rates as high as 100 to 200 per 1,000 live births, with high percentages of poor urban children only partially vaccinated, or not vaccinated at all. There are also high levels of anaemia and a high proportion of severely undernourished children.