UNITED NATIONS -- United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) placed a call to action on Thursday for the international community to "see the child before the disability," focusing on what children with disabilities can achieve, rather than what they cannot do.

Concentrating on abilities rather than disabilities would benefit society as a whole, UNICEF said in its annual State of the World's Children's report launched in Vietnam on Thursday.

UNICEF's flagship publication highlighted this year not just the challenges of the estimated tens of millions of children who live with disabilities, but also the contributions they can make, if allowed to achieve their ambitions.

"When you see the disability before the child, it is not only wrong for the child, but it deprives society of all that child has to offer," UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said in a press release issued here.

"Their loss is society's loss; their gain is society's gain," he said.

The report noted that children with disabilities are among the most marginalized.

It said that marginalization often begins at birth, which too often goes unregistered. If children are not recognized officially, they are cut off from healthcare, education and opportunity.

"For children with disabilities to count, they must be counted - - at birth, at school and in life," Lake said in the press release.

Therefore, the report proposed nine recommendations to bolster international commitment to ensuring that children with disabilities live full, productive lives and are given the chance to make their contribution to society.

It said that greater efforts to include children with disabilities -- for instance by mainstreaming them in education -- would tackle the discrimination that pushes them to the margins.

Mobilizing political will is critical, said the report, urging all nations to ratify and implement the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

So far, about one third of all nations have failed to ratify the treaty.

The State of the World's Children's 2013 report also stressed that every body has a role to play in reducing discrimination, from governments, which create inclusive infrastructure and legal and social protections, to communities -- and to the private sector, which can do more to embrace diversity, particularly in hiring processes.

"The path ahead is challenging," said Lake. "But, children do not accept unnecessary limits. Neither should we."