From poverty to child marriage, a majority of the world's children face "a sudden end of childhood," according to the NGO Save the Children. While European youngsters fared best, the situation was bleakest in Africa.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/J. Delay
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About 1.2 billion children face severe risks from conflict, poverty or sexual discrimination, said Save the Children rights organization in a report published on Wednesday.
The main threats to childhood are child labor, exclusion from education, early pregnancy and child marriage, with conflict often inflating the risks.
"Around the world, conflict denies children of theirs rights to health, education, protection and freedom from fear, leading to a sudden end of childhood," the organization said.
"Child marriage, child labor and malnutrition are just a few of the alarming living conditions that can deprive children of their childhood," said Susanna Krüger, managing director Save the Children in Germany.
Childhood under threat
According to the report, many of the worst-ranked countries were located in central and western Africa. Niger ranked at the bottom of the list, with Mali and the Central African Republic not far behind.
"Children in these countries are the least likely to fully experience childhood," the report said. "In these and many other countries around the world, children are robbed of significant portions of their childhoods."
At the opposite end of the list, Singapore and Slovenia shared the top spot. Germany ranked 12 globally, while the US came in 36 and Russia right behind it at 37.
"Seven other Western European countries also rank in the top 10, attaining very high scores for children's health, education and protection status," the report said.
Out of the 175 countries ranked in the study, 95 of them showed improvement in one of the risk areas. Meanwhile, in 20 countries, children are exposed to all three threats.
In many countries, girls are more at risk than boys, facing gender discrimination, early pregnancy and child marriageImage: picture-alliance/dpa/V. Melnikov
'Leave no one behind'
The report recommended the international community take steps and use the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework as a way to secure childhood across the globe.
"We call on world leaders to value children and their right to survive, thrive and be protected by following through on the commitments made under the SDGs, and by taking immediate steps to implement the pledge to leave no one behind," Save the Children said.
"In addition to these cross-cutting global guarantees, specific actions are needed to address poverty, conflict and gender, with a focus on girls and children who are refugees."
With several countries in the Middle East in the grip of conflicts, children there are not only in danger but often miss out on schooling. Efforts are made to keep lessons going, even under dire conditions.
Image: Reuters/A. Zeyad
Lessons continue despite destruction
These girls are attending a class at their school in the Yemeni port city of Hedeidah despite the fact that a wall has been almost completely taken out by a Saudi-led air strike. The country has been enmeshed in a bloody civil war for three years now, and the conflict shows no sign of ending. Saudi Arabia has led a coalition fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels since 2015.
Image: Reuters/A. Zeyad
Learning in a barn
Syria is another country in the Middle East wracked by civil conflict, with millions displaced and hundreds of thousands killed. Some of the displaced children are seen here being taught in a barn for lack of school buildings in the rebel-held area of Daraa in southern Syria. Chairs are also in short supply, meaning several of the children have been forced to sit on stones instead.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/M. Abazeed
Failed deal
Although Iran and Russia, which both back the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, made a deal with rebel backer Turkey to make Eastern Ghouta a "de-escalation zone" from July, the agreement has been repeatedly violated. This school in the Eastern Ghouta village of Hamouria did not escape damage, and humanitarian workers have warned of a dire situation inside the enclave.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/A. Almohibany
Makeshift school
Syrian children are seen here attending classes in improvised conditions in a rebel-held area of the southern city of Daraa. Although many countries are determined that children in Syria should not become a "lost generation" for lack of schooling, the war is making it difficult and sometimes impossible for lessons to continue.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/M. Abazeed
Return to normality amid signs of war
This wall at a school in the Syrian village of Hazima, north of Raqqa, is full of bullet holes from the war. The extremist group "Islamic State" closed the school and many others in northern Syria when it took over the region in 2014. Now it has been driven out, children can go back to learning normal subjects instead of the extremist propaganda taught by the hardline Islamists.
Image: Reuters/Z. Bensemra
Games amid ruins
"Where do the children play?" British singer Yusuf Islam, commonly known by his former stage name of Cat Stevens, once asked in a song. These children have found their playground in this damaged school in al-Saflaniyeh in eastern Aleppo province. But one can only wish they had nicer, and safer, surroundings for their games.
