Yemen Poverty and illiteracy hamper child rights, report says

from Reuters Alert Net

SANAA, (IRIN) - Poverty, unemployment, illiteracy and a high population growth rate are the main factors preventing Yemen from observing children's rights. Those are the findings published in a report by the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood (SCMC), a government body.

The 26 December report, into the living conditions of children in Yemen, examines to what extent the demands of the Convention on the Rights of the Child were being met, and identifies why Yemen is falling short of honouring its pledges.

Fathia Ahmed, assistant secretary general of the SCMC, said the report's goal was to help reduce violence against children (whether at home, school or street), child labour and child trafficking.

According to the SCMC, child trafficking has increased over the past few years.

"The status of Yemeni children has improved since Yemen ratified the child's rights convention in 1991. Children's rights were not given much attention before," she told IRIN.

However, she added that the convention has not been upheld in Yemen because of widespread illiteracy, high unemployment, and lack of data on the conditions of the children.

Yemen is the poorest country in the Arab world, with almost half of its 20 million people living below the poverty line, on less than US $2 a day.

The report states that "48.8 per cent of Yemeni families live below the poverty line, and 17.6 per cent of families live with food poverty. Poverty is mainly found among the young, and 53 percent of poor people are children under 15".

With the health services covering only 50 percent of the population, the report said that in the countryside, many children under the age of five years are at risk of dying as a result of their low birth weight, for not being vaccinated, or for not having access to clean drinking water and hygienic toilets.

Poverty, illiteracy and tough social conditions for many families exacerbate the problem, the report said. It added, that in the case of child trafficking, children are also at risk of being detained, beaten or sexually abused.