How well treated are children in your country?
An important measure of how civilised is a country is how well that nation treats its most vulnerable citizens, its children. The UN agency UNICEF periodically publishes league tables on this issue.
This week it has published its latest report. The key table – on the frst page of text – ranks 29 developed countries according to the overall well-being of their children and each country’s overall rank is based on its average ranking for the five dimensions of child well-being considered in the review.
Four of the top five countries are Scandinavian: Norway, Iceland, Finland and Sweden. The top nation is another small one with strong social welfare policies: The Netherlands.
The British media has concentrated on the UK’s position in the table – number 16 out of 29 – and noted that this shows an improvement as a result of policies of the last Labour Government but warned that we can now expect a decline as a consequence of the welfare cuts of the current Coalition Government.
For me though, another striking feature of the UNICEF table is the position of the United States. It is 26th and located between Greece and Lithuania. This is the most powerful and prosperous nation on the globe that accords its children no better treatment than crisis-hit Greece.
I wonder how the US media reported this UNICEF assessment?