This report presents the recommendations of the Subcommittee of the WHO Expert Committee responsible for the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines. The task of this Subcommittee was to draw up the first WHO Model List of Essential Medicines for Children. The first part of the report contains a summary of the Committee's considerations and justifications for the inclusion of particular medicines in the Model List for Children. Appendices to the main report include the first WHO Model List of Essential Medicines for Children, a list of all the items it contains sorted according to their 5-level Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification codes and a summary of medicines to be reviewed before the next meeting of the Subcommittee.