The effects of climate change threaten a billion children worldwide, according to the Dutch NGO KidsRights, which notes that the overall standard of living for minors has not improved over the past decade.
The Covid-19 pandemic has also had a significant impact, with minors sometimes deprived of food or medicine due to disruptions in the health sector. This has led to the death of some 286,000 children under the age of five, KidsRights noted on Wednesday in this year's edition of its annual survey.
Published each year, its KidsRights Index ranks 185 countries according to their compliance with the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, based on UN data.
Iceland, Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands occupy the top places in the 2022 ranking. At the bottom are the Central African Republic, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Chad. Belgium is 28th.
For the first time in two decades, the number of working children rose to 160 million in 2022, an increase of 8.4 million over the past four years, according to the Index, compiled with the Erasmus University of Rotterdam.
However, the study welcomes the progress made by some countries.
Angola has more than halved its under-five mortality. Bangladesh has cut the number of its underweight under-fives by nearly half, and Bolivia, for its part, has almost halved the number of accidents involving children at work.
Other countries singled out by the report included Nigeria – ranked 175th for the high rate of maternal deaths during childbirth there – and Montenegro, 49th, due to its low vaccination rates.
