Netherlands drops 16 spots on Kids Rights rankings

The Netherlands dropped 16 places on the KidsRights Index. The international children’s rights organization KidsRights, known for its annual International Children’s Peace Prize, published the 2023 rankings on Monday. The Netherlands is now 20th in this ranking, which shows how all 193 countries in the world score in the field of children’s rights. It is the first time that the Netherlands has fallen outside the top ten.

According to the report, the Netherlands spends a very low percentage of the government budget on children. That results in long waiting lists in youth care and youth protection. So “the State cannot provide the necessary care or protection for a large group of vulnerable children.”

Marc Dullaer, chairman of KidsRights, said that the Netherlands falls short “across the board’ in the field of children’s rights. “The Netherlands is one of the richest countries in the world, but underperforms regarding children’s rights.”

According to the 2023 KidsRights Index Report, an estimated one in four children worldwide lives below the poverty line this year. The report points to various contributing factors, including the wars in Ukraine and Sudan and the increased cost of living. Other factors include an increase in environmental disasters, the low global vaccination rate, and girls being excluded from education in Afghanistan.

Sweden, Finland, and Iceland are the top three in the annual ranking. At the bottom of the list are Afghanistan and the African countries of Chad and South Sudan.