A/70/213 I. Introduction 1. Some 6.3 million children under the 5 years of age died in 2013, 1 mostly from preventable causes and treatable diseases. The rates of child mortality and morbidity have declined significantly in recent years as a result of global and national commitments to child survival. However, mortality rates remain unacceptably high, particularly among young children living in poverty and from marginalized groups in low-income countries. 2. At least 200 million children under the age of 5 fail to reach their full potential. 2 According to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, young children ’s earliest years are the foundation for their health and development across the life course. 3 Their nutritional and health status, as well as the quality of their relationships and social interactions, have life-long implications for their development and health. 4 Early childhood is the most effective and efficient time to ensure that all children develop their full potential and the returns on investment in early child development are substantial. 5 Regrettably, children’s right to development has thus far not received the same attention as their right to survival. 3. Health, survival and development are not sequential but are intrinsically linked and simultaneous processes. Early childhood programmes should continue to pursue objectives that include survival and health in the short term, but they should more consistently go beyond to embrace healthy development and health throughout life. 4. The present report focuses on the right to the highest attainable standard of health (“right to health”) and its relationship to the right of the young child to survival and development. These rights are interconnected and indivisible. Their relationship has two key dimensions: (a) The right to survival and healthy development is central to the enjoyment of the right to physical and mental health throughout life; (b) The right to health in early childhood includes freedoms and entitlements that are not only essential to immediate survival and heal th, but also to the healthy development of the child and the adult s/he will become. 5. Reducing the mortality and morbidity rate among children under 5 years of age has been a focus of the global health community for several decades. More recently, the issue has been given increased attention by the human rights community. Section II of the present report highlights the progress made in reducing under -5 mortality and morbidity and in understanding the human rights dimensions of the issue. While the global health community has increasingly focused on the healthy development of the child, the subject has not yet been given adequate attention by __________________ 1 2 3 4 5 15-12535 United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and others, Levels and Trends in Child Mortality: Report 2014 (2014), p. 1. S. Grantham McGregor and others, “Development potential in the first 5 years for children in developing countries”, Lancet, vol. 369, No. 9555 (6 January 2007), pp. 60-70. General comment No. 7 (2005), para. 6 (e). S. Maggi and others, “International perspectives on early child development”, World Health Organization (WHO), December 2005. Available from www.who.int/social_determinants/ resources/ecd.pdf. A. Lake, “Early childhood development — global action is overdue”, Lancet, vol. 378, No. 9799 (8 October 2011), pp. 1277-1278. 3/25