UN General Assembly
1960

68. I come to another aspect. According to a survey made by the well-known Royal Institute of International Affairs, the rate of infant mortality in Iraq is one of the highest in the world, and is ascribed mainly to malnutrition. In an article in a London newspaper it is stated that at Baghdad there exists some of the worst poverty in the world. The article then goes on to say that: "Perhaps a quarter of a million people live in crude straw shelters or in shacks made of old tin cans, without roads, drains, lighting or clean water". 69. According to a United Nations document it was found impossible to apply compulsory education in certain of the rural provinces because of the poverty of the parents who needed the labour of their children on the land.