21% rise in child rights violations worldwide in situations of war and armed conflict

This year’s report highlights a number of crises which combined together paint a gloomy picture of the state of children’s rights across the world.

War and armed conflict
There has been a 21% rise of serious children’s rights violations in armed conflicts around the world,  including in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and many more countries across the globe. 

In Gaza alone, since October 2023 at least nearly 8,000 children have been killed. Reports also show that 1,957 children have been killed or injured in Ukraine since the escalation of war in the country in 2022.

The rise in armed conflicts around the world has heightened the risk of post-traumatic stress and other mental health conditions and disrupted the provision of basic protection and mental wellbeing services for children.

Covid-19 and immunization rates
Previously immunisation rates amongst children had been dropping in the Global South due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The Report shows that the continuing fallout of the pandemic has now led to a reduction in immunization rates amongst children in almost a third (32%) of countries in Western Europe. And the heritage of staying-at-home procedures used during the Covid-19 pandemic continues to have lasting effects as well.

Sustainable Development Goals
Progress on the UN’s ‘Agenda 2030’ and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) relevant to children contained therein, is severely lagging. Only one in three of the UN’s child-related SDG indicators have been met or are on track to be met. This means that only one in four children will live in countries where these will be met eventually.

Climate change
The ongoing impact of climate change induced disasters and the subsequent displacement of children continues to threaten young people’s rights around the world. Therefore, the KidsRights Index team is working on designing an additional climate change domain to the Index. At present, this new domain is still experimental, but prospects are that this will become operational in a year or two. 

Right-wing politics
The KidsRights Index report has also found that the rise of right-wing political leadership and resulting anti-migration sentiments across the globe are hindering the pursuit of children’s rights in many locations.

Positive developments

Despite this gloomy picture, there are also some positive developments such as the positive and consistent efforts by states such as Denmark and the United Kingdom to phase out fossil fuels and introduce climate change related policies and goals that will have positive short-term and long-term effects.

Country rankings

The lowest-scoring country in this year’s Report is Afghanistan, replacing Chad which had consistently been the lowest ranked for the last four years.

The highest-ranked country (without considering the still experimental domain of Climate Change is excluded) is Luxembourg.