Jordan ranks 46th in global child rights index

AMMAN — Jordan ranked 46th globally and 5th among Arab countries in the 2016 global index for children’s rights.

Issued by KidsRights, an international children’s rights foundation, on Monday, the report ranks 163 countries on the extent to which they adhere to and are equipped to improve the rights of children.

In ranking countries, the foundation considers how well children’s rights to life, health, education and protection are adhered to, as well as how successful the environment is enabling child rights. 

Jordan ranked 77th in the “right to life” category, which considers infant and maternal mortality rates as well as life expectancy at birth. 

For children’s right to health, the Kingdom ranked 30th. In this category, the foundation looked at immunisation rates, access to improved drinking water and sanitation facilities and the number of underweight children aged below five years. 

Jordan came 63rd in the education category, based on school participation and attendance figures. 

For children’s right to protection, Jordan ranked 38th, based on child labour rates, adolescent birth rates and birth registration in the Kingdom. 

In the final category, the foundation considered the environment for enabling children’s rights in each country and examined national legislation, available budget, cooperation with civil society and non-discrimination among other indicators. Jordan ranked joint 81st-87th in this area. 

Overall, Tunisia topped the Arab countries and ranked 10th globally, while Iraq came last among Arab countries, ranking 149th overall. 

Norway topped the index of 163 countries, followed by Portugal and Iceland.

This year’s report was conducted in collaboration with Erasmus University and underlined that worldwide countries are falling short on the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, KidsRights said in a statement. 

The foundation urged all countries to increase efforts to combat discrimination against minority groups of children and youth. 

Vulnerable and marginalised children, including refugee children, migrant children, disabled children, street children and indigenous children are still widely discriminated against, the survey found.

Another area in need of improvement, the statement said, is the much-needed cooperation between the state and civil society, which remains underdeveloped in many countries. 

The foundation also expressed alarm over increased threats posed to the safety of children’s rights defenders, journalists and civil society activists. 

“In too many countries such practitioners are being harassed, threatened, abused or jailed,” the statement said.