Global report on children with developmental disabilities: from the margins to the mainstream. Geneva: World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2023. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.
Every child and young person has the right to enjoy the highest attainable standard of health and wellbeing. The realization of this right depends on the capacity of governments to ensure safe, healthy, enabling, inclusive environments; universal access to health care and education; and equitable opportunities for participation in all realms of life. Yet, due to the clustering of vulnerabilities and the failure of societies to ensure inclusion, universal health coverage and enabling environments for all, children and young people with developmental disabilities are more likely to experience adversities, such as stigmatization, violence, poverty, school dropout and parental mental illness. They are also more likely to experience poor health and have unmet health care needs, and are deprived of opportunities to thrive.