Children’s rights are under growing pressure worldwide. The KidsRights Index 2026 reveals a worrying decline in children’s rights, driven by rising armed conflict and a global childhood obesity epidemic. More than one in five children now face the direct impact of conflict, while obesity among children has surpassed underweight for the first time in history. Explore the key findings below and discover what the latest data tells us about the state of children’s rights worldwide.
Every child has rights
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How are children's rights doing worldwide?
Discover the latest findings from the KidsRights Index 2026 and see where action is needed most.
Explore the KidsRights Index 2026
Over a billion children are affected by climate change. Millions are denied an education, trapped in conflict zones, or living without basic care. And yet, across the world, young people are speaking out and driving change. Children's rights are not a promise for later, they are a demand for now.
"Our greatest challenge today is to help vulnerable children. If we provide education and protection to children, then we take our responsibility as adults"
- MIKCHAEL GORBATSJOV, NOBEL PEACE LAUREATE
AWARDED THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN'S PEACE PRIZE IN 2025
What are children’s rights?
In 1989, world leaders made a promise to every child on the planet. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (the UNCRC) set out 54 rights that belong to every child, everywhere, without exception.
The right to education. To healthcare. To be heard. To be safe. To play.
196 countries have signed it. That makes it the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history. And yet, for millions of children, these rights remain out of reach.
At KidsRights, the UNCRC is not background information. It is our foundation. Every piece of research we do, every young changemaker we support, every platform we build, it all comes back to this: children are the rights-holders of today and will be decisive for future change.
Four rights at the core
The UNCRC has 54 articles, but four stand above the rest. These ‘general principles’ shape how all the other rights are understood and applied.
*Rights apply to every child*, regardless of who they are or where they live.
Every child deserves to survive and grow to their full potential.
In all decisions and actions that affect children, their best interests must be a primary consideration.
Children have the right to express their views, and to have them taken seriously in all matters that affect them. That last one? It is what KidsRights fights for every day.
What the numbers tell us
Rights on paper aren’t enough
Signing a convention is a start. But rights only change lives when they are put into practice. That is exactly what KidsRights works to do, through three connected pillars.
Measuring the world's commitment to children's rights. Explore the KidsRights Index
Kidsrights Index
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Young changemakers are moving the world
The International Children's Peace Prize
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Change doesn't come from the top. It starts with young people who refuse to wait
State of Youth
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Supporting young people. Shaping the future.
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