The Netherlands dropped from its 4th place in the 2022 Index (out of 185 in total) to 20th in the 2023 Index (out of a total of 193). While there was a decrease in Domain 2 (Health), the largest decline is seen in Domain 5. Since the 2015 Concluding Observations, the Netherlands has not improved performance on any of the Domain 5 indicators, while there was a downfall on one (‘best interests’). On five indicators the Netherlands remained at the same performance level as in 2015 (‘non-discrimination’, ‘respect for the views of the child’, ‘legislation’, ‘resources’, and ‘data’). There was insufficient information regarding ‘state-civil society cooperation’ to generate a score on that indicator. Issues highlighted by the Committee on the Rights of Child included its concern that “not all municipalities have an anti-discrimination service in accordance with the Municipal Anti-Discrimination Services Act” and that “regional disparities and de facto discrimination disproportionately affect children in disadvantaged situations, including in education, youth care and the justice system”.
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The KidsRights Index 2023 mainly reviews the global state of play of children’s rights until the end of the year 2022. In 2022, all over the world children suffered the impacts of multiple and often mutually reinforcing crises. Crises that were brought about among other things by the interplay of the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic; the war in Ukraine and the related energy, food and cost-of-living crises; and climate change. Flash floods in Pakistan, a ban on girl education beyond grade 6 (or primary school) in Afghanistan, and more recently (early 2023) the earthquake in Türkiye and Syria, and the conflict in Sudan, are all examples of different recent crises that have severely impacted the rights of children in more specific locations in different parts of the world.