UNICEF study says Canada fails children

from AFP via Google

OTTAWA (AFP) — A new UNICEF study that examined the state of children's rights in Canada on Tuesday scathed the nation's inflated levels of child poverty, obesity, and violence.

According to the report, "What's Rights for Some: A portrait of Canada's first generation growing up under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child," one child in six lives in poverty in Canada, a figure that has not changed in a generation.

Aboriginal children are the most vulnerable, facing poverty rates that are three times that of other Canadian children, it says.

"Compared with other industrialized countries, our children are suffering from unacceptable rates of poverty, obesity, mental illness and violence that have persisted or increased since Canada ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991," said Nigel Fisher, president of UNICEF Canada.

Almost 26 percent of Canadian children are obese -- one of the highest obesity rates of industrialized countries. As well, child asthma and diabetes are on the rise, the report said.

Infant mortality has stagnated for the past five years at about five deaths per 1,000 births, while the rate has declined elsewhere. The child mortality rate among Canada's aboriginals is almost double that of the national average.

In addition, about 1.1 million youths, or 15 percent of Canadians under 20 years old, suffer from anxiety, depression and drug or alcohol dependency, but only one in five of those are treated for mental illness.

And, more children in Canada are incarcerated or under child welfare protection than in most other industrialized countries.