Missouri ranks among worst U.S. states for children's rights due to marriage and punishment laws

The non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch gave Missouri an "F" grade for its compliance with international child rights standards. Missouri still allows 16-year-olds to be married, and allows corporal punishment in public and private schools.
A recent report by an international human rights group ranked Missouri in the bottom third of all states for child rights, in part because Missouri still allows child marriage and corporal punishment in schools.

The report, published by the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch, measured every state’s laws against the standards of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, an international treaty that the U.S. has not ratified.

The organization examined every state’s laws on child marriage, corporal punishment, child labor and juvenile justice.

“It’s disappointing that so many states still fail to meet international children’s rights standards,” Callie King-Guffey, lead researcher for the project, said in a press release, “but this progress shows that policymakers have the potential to bring about rapid change to protect children.”