UAE Moves 39 Positions in KidsRights Index 2016

KidsRights, the international children’s rights foundation, in collaboration with Erasmus University, has Monday published the KidsRights Index 2016. The Index is an annually updated global ranking that charts the extent to which countries worldwide adhere to and are equipped to improve the rights of children. 

This year’s list underlines that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is dramatically falling on the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The UAE was mentioned in Monday’s press release as itfocused on those countries that presented themselves before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2015,

Compared to the KidsRights Index 2015, the KidsRights Index 2016 leads to striking differences for 11 countries including the UAE. 

According to the report, the UAE was also subject to the CRC state reporting procedure in 2015 and thus received a new score for domain 5 ‘Enabling Environment for Child Rights’. 

The UAE moved 39 positions in the overall ranking, said KidsRights, an international, non-governmental organisation which promotes and advocates for the well-being of very vulnerable children across the world.

 The UAE' s record in the 2015 Concluding Observations shows thrice the lowest score (on non-discrimination, best interests, and state-civil society cooperation for child rights) and four times a middle score (on respect for the views of the child, enabling legislation, budget and state-civil society cooperation). On five indicators, the scores stayed the same in 2015 as they were in 2002 (non-discrimination, best interests, respect for the views of the child, enabling legislation and budget). On one indicator the United Arab Emirates’ score dropped from the maximum to a middle score (on data), and on other indicator it dropped from a middle score to the lowest score (state-civil society cooperation).

In the bigining of 2016, the UAE authorities stripped away the citizenship of five children of the political activist Abid al-Ka'abi for their father's background.

Without official documents, al-Ka'abi's five children remained unable to gain access to basic services at home and travel overseas.

In a similar violation to child's rights, UAE authorities stripped away the nationality of three Emiratis who are the children of the political prisoner Mohammed Abdulrazzaq al-Siddiq, who was jailed for 10 years for allegedly plotting to overthrow the state, in a controversial 2013 trial of 94 political activists.