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10 Years On: Global progress & delay in ending violence against children - the rhetoric and the reality
News in brief
Upcoming events
10 Years On: Global progress & delay in ending violence against children - the rhetoric and the reality
Millions of children are still beaten, tortured, and sentenced to death around the world despite increased attention to violence against under-18s according to a group of leading children's rights organisations.
A new study on violence against children has found that countries have increasingly banned corporal punishment and abandoned life imprisonment for children over the last decade, but under-18s still face dangers from child marriage, honour killings, new forms of sexual violence, and more children are facing the death penalty than ten years ago.
The new report, Global progress & delay in ending violence against children, tracks ten years of change since the first UN Study on Violence Against Children was published in 2006. The study includes contributions from the UN’s Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Kate Gilmore, the original study’s main author and current Chairperson of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria, Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, and several Special Representatives of the Secretary-General who deal with children’s rights.
As well as physical punishment, execution and infanticide the report covers gang violence, child marriage and female genital mutilation in its examination of violence against children. Data included in the report shows that while the prevalence of many forms of violence has fallen, the world’s increasing population has led to more children experiencing violence overall.
The UN’s first violence study set 2009 as a deadline to legally prohibit many of these harmful practices, but there is still much to be done before these goals are met in reality. Despite the seemingly slow progress to date, the Sustainable Development Goals have set the target of ending all violence against children by 2030. A global partnership has been formed to fulfil this goal and the UN is soon to launch a global study on children deprived of liberty, representing an unprecedented level of support for ending violence against children.
In the ten years since the Study was published, great strides have been made in learning about the violence that affects children around the world, along with great advances in combating some of those forms of violence. Yet for many children, violence is an ever present fact of life.
The number of countries that have legally prohibited all forms of corporal punishment of children has tripled since the Study was published, yet an estimated one billion children still experience physical violence in the home on a regular basis.
Perhaps worse still, many of the most severe forms of violence children experience remain legal, whether in the 14 States that still allow the death penalty for children, the 22 countries that still legally permit certain forms of female genital mutilation, or the 93 that allow girls to marry before the age of 18.
The report itself was prepared by the International NGO Council on Violence Against Children, a group of leading international and national children’s rights organisations formed in 2007 and tasked with following up on the recommendations of the original study.
Click here to download the full report - 10 years on: Global progress and delay in ending violence against children - the rhetoric & the reality.
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NEWS IN BRIEF
Violence
PHILIPPINES: Open letter to the Minister of Justice on the death penalty
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: UN completes investigations into allegations of sexual abuse by peacekeepers
NIGERIA: Two 'young girls' used as human bombs
UNITED KINGDOM: Children threatened with Tasers more than 500 times last year, charity reports
Health
Child labour
Refugees
UNITED KINGDOM: Home office stops transfer of Calais child refugees
UN: Millions of ‘children on the move’ without protection is unacceptable
Armed Conflict
MIDDLE EAST: Conflict threatens decades of progress for children in Middle East, North Africa
YEMEN: Malnutrition among children in Yemen at ‘all-time high'
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UPCOMING EVENTS
Investment: E-course on child rights public budgeting
Organisation: Human Rights Education Associates
Dates: 18 January - 1 February 2017
Location: Online
Asia: Course on "Frontiers of Children's Rights in the ASEAN Region"
Organisations: Leiden Law School et al.
Dates: 23-27 January 2017
Location: Beji, Depok City, Indonesia
Participation: E-course on child participation
Organisation: Human Rights Education Associates
Dates: 1 February - 14 March 2017
Location: Online
Education: International Children’s Rights
Organisation: Leiden University
Application deadline: 1 April 2017 (non-EU) / 15 June 2017 (EU students)
Dates: September 2017 - Summer 2018
Location: Leiden, The Netherlands
Europe: Justice for Children Award
Organisations: DCI and OMCT
Submission deadline: 30 April 2017
Best interests: International Conference on Shared Parenting
Organisations: The National Parents Organization & the International Council on Shared Parenting
Dates: 29-31 May 2017
Location: Boston, United States
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THE LAST WORD
"Violence compromises children’s rights. But beyond its destructive impact on children and their families, it is associated with serious economic and social costs, and can easily destroy development gains that took decades to build. Violence undermines the investments nations make in the education and health of children, and in the promotion of gender equality and empowerment. It also incurs major costs to the criminal justice, health and social services systems while eroding the fabric of local economies through productivity and human capital losses."
- Marta Santos Pais, Special Representative of the Secretary General on Violence against Children Back to top
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