National child rights indicators spark concern as Uzbekistan drops to 96th place

The latest figures come from the annual global child rights index published by the Netherlands-based KidsRights Foundation in collaboration with Erasmus University Rotterdam. The index evaluates 194 countries that have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, assessing their performance across five key categories: life, health, education, protection, and an enabling environment for child rights.

Uzbekistan accumulated a total score of 0.679 out of 1.000. A closer look at the individual categories reveals sharp contrasts in the country's performance. Uzbekistan excelled in the health category, securing an impressive 15th place worldwide. However, it fell significantly behind in all other sectors, ranking 95th for the right to life, 101st for education, 115th for child protection, and 124th for creating an enabling environment.

Within the Central Asian region, Uzbekistan trails all its neighbors. Kazakhstan leads the region at 24th place globally, followed by Turkmenistan at 75th, Kyrgyzstan at 82nd, and Tajikistan at 92nd. For broader context, Ukraine is positioned at 36th, China at 81st, Israel at 110th, the United Kingdom at 132nd, and Russia at 151st. The United States is excluded from the ranking entirely because it has not ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Luxembourg tops the 2026 global ranking with a score of 0.871, followed closely by Iceland at 0.867, and Monaco and Germany, which tied at 0.866. The remainder of the top ten includes the Netherlands, Norway, Greece, Belgium, and Slovenia, with Austria and Thailand sharing the final top tier spot.

Published annually since 2013, the KidsRights Index remains the only global ranking system that measures how children's rights are respected and driven forward worldwide using comparable statistical data.