The United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF) was created in December 1946 by the United Nations General Assembly. Originally, it was set up to provide emergency food and healthcare to children living in countries that had been ravaged during the Second World War. In 1953, UNICEF became a permanent part of the United Nations. Today UNICEF provides long-term humanitarian assistance to children in developing countries. UNESCO proclaimed 1979 as the International Year of the Child, to draw attention to problems like malnutrition and lack of education that affected children throughout the world. Many of these efforts resulted in the drawing up of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989.
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