The global situation of children is reported in light of the U.N. General Assembly's November, 1989 adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, an international treaty for the protection of children. The report is divided into three parts, the first of which includes an overview of the U.N. Convention, and essays on the debt crisis and its effect on children; children and human rights in the 1990s; and children's rights advocate Janusz Korczak. Part 2 presents excerpts from international law, including the U.N. Declaration of the Rights of the Child; Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction; Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice; and principles related to foster placement and adoption. The third and by far the longest part of the document consists of a series of database abstracts organized in the following categories: abuse; adoption; armed conflict; child labor; detention; disappearance; discrimination; education; environment; family; freedom of expression; health; homeless and abandoned; housing; hunger; juvenile justice; narcotics; political protest, repression, and violence; pornography; prostitution; poverty; refugees; torture; and trafficking. Three appendices contain an index by geography, a list of countries by region, and database sources. (LB)