Summary:
The rights of children in 2007 were far from being respected, as we continued to see extreme numbers of cases across the globe were the of basic needs of the child where not met. There are some 2.2 billion children in the world, 86% of which live in the developing world. Of the children in the developing world the lack of access to primary education, forced labor, sexual abuse, and gender inequality run rampant. A third of all children in the developing world have some level of malnutrition by the age of five, have little or no access to adequate healthcare. In 2007 millions upon millions of children continued to live in dire conditions and lack access to adequate health care, forced into child labor, fight as child soldiers, and serve as sex slaves. While many progresses where made, especially in regards to awareness on such issues as child trafficking, the majority of issues have continued to remain stagnate in the world of international politics.

When looking back on all the events and stories which have unfolded over the last year relating to children and children's rights, it was indeed a busy year. Sadly one could only make a small dent in bringing you the issues and stories of our children, for the world is still far from safely and successfully ensuring the well being of our children across the globe. While the year did bring us stories of success, hope and countless efforts have been made to bring many issues out in the open and to justice, billions of children around the world still continue to suffer needlessly. The complexity of trying to bring to light the lives of children around the world is that there is no drought of information and news, therefore one finds themselves struggling to write about what seems more important, when in truth all of the stories deserve equal attention.

Most Influential Organization:
When thinking of organizations that have, and continue to make substantial contributions to children worldwide, one immediately thinks of UNICEF, Save the Children, World Vision, and other large scale NGO's alike, however the organization that has come to stand out far above the rest, and ultimately the others are benefiting from the GATES Foundation. It is undeniable that the GATES Foundation is a leader in international development, and thanks to a huge boost from Warren Buffet last year, the foundations reach is easily felt. As of September 30, 2007 the foundation has committed $258 million to the Malaria Vaccine Initiative and $110 million to Save the Children's Saving Newborn Lives program. The Foundation's continued commitment to global development including its Global Libraries program, has worked to provided children and their families with sustainable development solutions. However the foundations most influential area has been its Global Health Program, which focuses heavily on preventable diseases, the majority of which effect children at greater levels than adults. Acute Diarrheal Illness, Acute Lower Respiratory Infections, Child Health, HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Poor Nutrition, Reproductive and Maternal Health, Tuberculosis, and other Vaccine-Preventable Diseases are the programs main focus.

Most Influential Person:
Well the truth is that there are countless humanitarians, activists and politicians that work tirelessly to protect the rights of children in their communities and abroad. I had hoped to dedicate more attention to their efforts this year, however as the endless news report affecting children rolled in continuously, time was never on the side of shining a spotlight on those who deserve it most. A few stories can be found under Humanitarian Spotlight, however this is only a tiny portion of those who serve to protect our children. The ones who are the most influential, are quite literally the children themselves, and I cannot single one child activist or survivor out above another. However young activists such as Ishmael Beah and Craig Kielburger have continued to stand out in my mind this year.

Most Important Legal Development:
In the United States Congress passed a bill which aims to provide protection to unaccompanied alien children. The Unaccompanied Alien Child Protection Act of 2007, was set to add to the provisions in the Homeland Security Act of 2002. Firstly in January 2005 as S. 119, it was followed by the introduction of companion legislation (H.R. 1172) in March of the same year. The purpose of the act is to address the multitude of gaps in the immigration system, and how it addresses and treats unaccompanied children. Although in December 2005 the bill passed in the Senate, it never became law. In October of this year, some of the provisions of the Unaccompanied Alien Child Protection Act were incorporated in the Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2007, introduced in the House as H.R. 3887. The Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act was passed by the House of Representatives on December 4th, and it will extend funding for the TVPA through 2011.

Most Unexpected Development:
I am not sure if the continuous recall of toys from China was truly the must unexpected development, or in many ways the most anticipated. However the most unexpected developments in 2007 have to be the collage of natural disasters that killed, injured, and displaced millions of children. The earthquakes in Asia and Peru, flooding, drought, fires, disease out brakes such as Ebola and the cyclone in Bangladesh, a list of natural disasters in 2007 can be found here. The devastating effects of natural disasters are always felt hardest by the children, who are the first to suffer from malnutrition and disease, in addition to the displacement that is cause putting children more at risk for human trafficking, abuse, inadequate healthcare and education.

Biggest Improvement's Made:
According to the newly released 2007 Progress for Children Report 2006, showed us that for the first time, the number of children dying before their fifth birthday fell below 10 million, to 9.7 million. The rate of child marriage has decreased, but slowly, as there was significant change in the percentage of women aged 20,24 married by 18, and only 5 countries experienced a decrease of more than 10%.

Other points of mention are the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 13 December 2006, and opened for signature on 30 March 2007.

However the biggest improvement for children has been the increase in the number of children in primary schools, which is helping to close the gender gap. According to the report both enrollment and attendance have increased, reducing the number of primary-school-age children who are out of school from 115 million in 2002 to 93 million in 2005,2006.

Best Books:
There is a wealth of books which are relevant to the many issues facing the worlds children today, of which you can find many on my book list. However the books that where published in 2007 that best come to mind are: The State of the World's Children 2007: The Women and Children, Ending Slavery by Kevin Bales, Protecting the World's Children: Impact of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Diverse Legal Systems by Shaheen Sardar Ali, Savitri Goonesekere, Emilio Garcia Mendez, and Rebeca Rios-Kohn. Also of mention is 2007 State of the Future
by Jerome C. Glenn and Theodore J. Gordon.

Most Critical Event:
When looking back at the events of 2007 one was inundated with events that had sever and lasting consequences on children. It was truly a year full of crucial international events, all of which, even the smallest ones, heavily impacted the lives of children. So which event was more critical, where did more kids suffer as a result? After pondering this question over and over for days, I cannot come to a conclusive answer, as the truth is how do you decide which children suffer more from, war, poverty, violence, rape, disease? Regardless of my qualifications, I feel that I cannot pinpoint one event over another. Those events that where equally the most critical in affecting children this year included the fighting and uprisings in countries such as; Burma, Darfur, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Congo, Somalia, etc. This ties me directly into the next category, what is the most important international children's issue, as events lead directly to the instability that then impacts or creates other issues, such as disease, displacement, poverty, violence and human trafficking/slavery.

Most Important International Children's Issue:
To write about what was the most important issue is one that will most likely cause debate, as picking one issues out of the endless issues in the hat will surely leave substantial room for argument. Quite honestly I also feel that there is no true most important issue, while yes some surely make the top of the list over others, one does not want the power of declaring what suffering is worse than others. Additionally as a person with a core focus on the issue of slavery and human trafficking, I could appear to be a bit biased, so I am not giving you one, but a few that come to mind with little haste. What has resonated in our minds all year has been the ongoing crisis in Darfur, which continues to effect the lives of all the regions children, after violence children continue to suffer needlessly as security is continually threatened, food, medicine and appropriate support have constantly remained insufficient. The issues of modern slavery continually plagued our headlines, as children across the world faced forced child labor, are held as sex slaves, violently in scripted into child armies.

However there is no doubting that the war in Iraq has has been substantial, and its affect on the countries children insurmountable. But Iraqi children are not alone in the struggle to escape war, as the Congo and Afghanistan have also continued to weigh heavy on the minds of activists and aid agencies alike.

Biggest Technology Development:
The Launch of One Laptop Per Child was surely the biggest technology development affecting children this year. While it got a slow start, the program is finally off and running, with its goal to bring technology and education to the developing world. While the projects success will take considerable time to unfold, and the reality of its sustainability may be a bit jaded by ambition, the idea of truly connecting the children of the world is well on its way.

Most Important Health Issue Facing Children:
Children are disproportionately effected by disease, and this year we saw numerous preventable diseases soring, and others causing great scares. Immunization campaigns for diseases such as Polio, and Ebola out brakes topped headlines this year.

However the issues that continues to effect children the most is HIV/AIDS as an estimated 2,300,000 children 14 years old or younger are living with HIV, and another 51,200,000 estimated children under the age of 17 years old have been orphaned by AIDS. The disease threatens entire countries future stability, not to mention the individual stability of future of its children, who have now come to know the virus as something almost normal.

Predictions for 2008:
As we enter a new year, we are left somewhat dumbfounded by the previous years events and the toll they have taken on children across the globe, however with each new year come renewed hope. Will 2008 end the suffering of children in the war torn countries of Iraq, Sudan, Congo? Will the number of AIDS orphans begin to decline?

Will 2008 truly be the year of the child? I wish I could sit here and write a wish list for children in 2008 and it would come true, but the power of the pen is not that mighty. However the issues that children are facing are far more complicated, and will take more than one year to establish sustainable solutions, and ensure that they are truly protected on every level. Do not take this as pure cynicism, but a sad reality that we have much cleaning up to do across the world, and we can make 2008 a great year as we begin to dig in and fight the core issues that are plaguing children such as poverty, HIV/AIDS, war, gender equality, sexual violence.

The biggest fight in 2008 will be for gender equality, which will help establish a base for the elimination of numerous other human rights violations against children. This is the year to act, and with awareness of such issues as; human trafficking, modern day slavery, sex tourism, female genital mutilation (FGM), and child marriages. Many of these issues are decreasing too slowly, or are on the rise. Therefore this coming year is the year to make substantial and sustainable dents in the gender gap.

Other issues such as disease control and immunization programs, also look to fair well in comparison in 2008, following increased immunization campaigns in 2007, and a substantial increase in funding and programs. HIV/AIDS continues to rise, however some successes have been made in increasing awareness have been made, thus it is hopeful that 2008 will be the year we begin to see a decline in the disease, if we increase our efforts in both raising awareness and initiating prevention programs, combined with antiviral and other drug treatments.

As we end the year the UN closed the World Fit for Children + 5 special session in New York, on December 13, with more than 140 government delegations having adopted a new Declaration on Children.

"I am delighted to see this high level meeting has broken new ground," said UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Kul Gautam. "This short but powerful declaration calls for the pursuit of a common vision to ensure the well-being of all children with a collective sense of urgency.”

by Cassandra Clifford