This document summarizes the KidsRights Index, which ranks 165 countries based on their compliance with children's rights as outlined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is calculated based on existing data from UNICEF and the UN CRC Committee across five domains: life, health, education, protection, and child rights environment. Country rankings and domain scores are presented, with some countries surprisingly ranking higher or lower than expected based on economic indicators alone. The index aims to draw attention to issues affecting children's rights worldwide and trigger public debate and policy action to address challenges.

1. The KidsRights Index
27 June 2014

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PRESENTERS
• Introduction: Marc Dullaert – Founder and Chairman of
KidsRights
• Methodology: Dinand Webbink – Professor of Policy
Evaluation, with specific focus on Health, Education
and Strategic Philanthropy at Erasmus School of
Economics
• The Specific Role of the UN Convention on the Rights
of the Child: Karin Arts – Professor of International
Law and Development at International Institute of
Social Studies

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INTRODUCTION
Introduction
Marc Dullaert – Founder and Chairman of KidsRights

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THE KIDSRIGHTS INDEX
• First global index based on uniform, comparable, existing data
• Focus on child rights (vs e.g. child well-being), including the
enabling environment that needs to be in place for child rights to
flourish
• Updated annually
• Country-ranking
• Basis for policy recommendations
• Concrete and easy to understand tool

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METHODOLOGY
Dinand Webbink
Professor of Policy Evaluation, with specific focus
on Health, Education and Strategic Philanthropy
at the Erasmus School of Economics

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THE KIDSRIGHTS INDEX

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DATA COLLECTION
• Existing data sources:
1.The State of the World‘s Children 2012 (UNICEF)
2.Concluding Observations of the Committee on the
Rights of the Child (United Nations)
• Criteria for data sources:
authoritative; available for all/most states;
comparable; regularly updated

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THE 5 DOMAINS
1. Life
2. Health
3. Education
4. Protection
5. Child Rights Environment

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INDICATORS PER DOMAIN (1)
1. Life:
• under 5 mortality rate
• life expectancy at birth
• maternal mortality ratio
1. Health
• % of under five year olds suffering from
underweight
• immunization of 1 year old children
• % of population using improved sanitation
facilities (urban and rural)
• % of population using improved drinking
water sources (urban and rural)

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INDICATORS PER DOMAIN (2)
3. Education
• primary school participation
• secondary school participation
• primary school enrolment ratios
(female as % of male)
• secondary school enrolment ratios
(female as % of male)
• survival rate to last grade of primary (female as % of male)
• primary school net attendance ratio (urban and rural)
4. Protection
• child labour
• adolescent birth rate
• birth registration
5. Child Rights Environment: 7 qualitative indicators

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165 COUNTRIES
The KidsRights Index ranks 165 countries, which
are all that:
1. Ratified the Convention on the Rights of the
Child
2. And for which enough data were published in
the State of the World’s Children (2012 for the
first version)

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COMPUTING THE SCORES (1)
1. Standardize all indicator scores in between 0
(low) to 1 (high)
2. The score of each domain is the average of the
indicators
3. All five domains have equal weight in the final
score
4. The final score is the geometric average
5. Missing data: the average per domain is based
on that of the other indicators

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COMPUTING THE SCORES (2)
8
Computing the total score
Ti = (Life)1/5
*(Health)1/5
* (Education)1/5
* (Protection)1/5
*(Environment)1/5
Examples
Portugal:
The Netherlands:
( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) 87.064.0*98.0*81.0*1*99.0
5/15/15/15/15/1
=
( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) 89.075.0*94.0*79.0*99.0*99.0
5/15/15/15/15/1
=

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RESULTS
Ranking of countries and clusters:
• For all domains together
• For each of the 5 domains separately
Colour coding:
blue, green, yellow, orange, red

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OVERALL INDEX

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1. LIFE

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2. HEALTH

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3. EDUCATION

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4. PROTECTION

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5. CHILD RIGHTS ENVIRONMENT

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ROLE OF THE CRC
Karin Arts - Professor of International Law and
Development at the International Institute of
Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam

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SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CRC
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
• Nearly universally ratified standard for
children’s rights: 193 states parties
• Child rights-based framework for action
• Basis for a state reporting procedure
to the Committee on the Rights of the
Child; generating concluding observations

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THE CHILD RIGHTS ENVIRONMENT (1)
• CRC also outlines general dimensions that
should be in place in a country
• Captured in domain 5 of the KidsRights Index:
child rights environment
• 7 qualitative indicators

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THE CHILD RIGHTS ENVIRONMENT (2)
a. the extent to which the general principles of the CRC
are operationalized:
- non-discrimination
- best interest of the child
- respect for the views of the child/child participation
b. the extent to which there is a basic ‘infrastructure’ for
child rights policy, in the form of:
- enabling legislation
- best available budget
- collection and analysis of disaggregated data
- state-civil society cooperation for child rights

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DOMAIN 5: COMPUTING THE SCORES
• These elements were traced in the Concluding Observations issued
by the CRC Committee for all states parties to the CRC
• And coded by ISS:
- where the Committee was unequivocally positive: a score of 3
- where the Committee came to a mixed assessment of positive
and negative elements: a score of 2
- where the Committee was unequivocally negative: a score of 1
• Standardized into a value between 0 and 1, in conformity with
scores for domains 1-4.
• Results in a unique qualitative addition to the quantitative
domains of the KidsRights Index

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RESULTS
1. Ranking of countries and clusters: for all domains
(1-5) together and for each of the 5 domains
separately.
1. It is a very different measure than e.g. basic
economic or social indicators.
2. Domain 5 has a large impact on the ranking of states.
3. ‘Rich’ countries do not necessarily rank high and
some ‘poor’ countries manage to do relatively well.

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STRIKING RANKINGS
Relatively Highly Ranking States
1. Portugal KRI 1 (HDI 43)
2. Thailand KRI 18 (HDI 103)
3. Egypt KRI 43 (HDI 112)
Relatively Low Ranking States
1. Germany KRI 20 (HDI 5)
2. Canada KRI 60 (HDI 11)
3. Australia KRI 26 (HDI 2)
4. New Zealand KRI 75 (HDI 6)
5. Italy KRI 82 (HDI 25)
6. Luxemburg KRI 100 (HDI 26)
7. Brunei Darussalam KRI 109 (HDI 30)

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STRIKING COUNTRY RESULTS: calculation
example domain 5
• Thailand ranks 18 in the KidsRights Index (while it is 103 in
the HDI): positive example
• Italy ranks 82 (while it is 25 in the HDI: negative example)
– Specific scores Thailand and Italy on domain environment

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FINDINGS
The KidsRights Index draws attention to the fact that:
1.There is a serious lack of data about the situation
of children, all over the world, for example on child
abuse (which currently cannot be included in the
KidsRights Index).
2.While at the same time more could be done with
existing data (through systematic review, analysis,
follow-up action, triggering public debate).

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USE OF THE INDEX
• Tool to stimulate public opinion and debate on
children’s rights
• Tool for governments, civil society and other
stakeholders to take action
• Tool for generating country specific policy
recommendations (phase 2)

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LAUNCH OF THE INDEX (1)
The KidsRights Index was
launched on 11 November
2013
in the Peace Palace in
The Hague, the Netherlands,
in the presence of NGOs,
academics, government
and press.

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LAUNCH OF THE INDEX (2)
The KidsRights Index
was presented to the
UN CRC Committee in
Geneva on 22
January 2014

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AMBITION & NEXT STEP
Our ambition is to develop the KidsRights Index in
the coming three years to:
•become a renowned frame of reference for
drawing attention to the status of children’s
rights across the world;
•to trigger debate about the current state of
children’s rights in the world
Next step: developing policy recommendations

34. www.kidsrightsindex.org