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Summary: Opening session of the regional consultation
for the UN Study on violence against children,
taking place in Cairo from 27 to 29 June 2005.[CAIRO, 27 June 2005] – The Middle East and North Africa Regional
Consultation for the UN Study on violence against children opened this
morning in Cairo. Over three hundred representatives from governments,
civil society and NGOs and children, from 21 countries of the region will
take part in this three day consultation to identify the types of violence
affecting children and find ways of eliminating these.
The session was opened by H.E. Ambassador Moushira Khattab who said
that violence against children in the region was ever increasing, but that
this consultation would help in devising policies to protect children. She
highlighted the importance of drawing lessons from experiences of others,
rather than drawing lessons from theory. One key place to start, she
explained was with awareness raising and finding ways for the culture of
society to accept that violence …
Deputy Executive Director for UNICEF, Rima Salah said that the
delegates’ “participation is an important message to the world, which is
that accepting violence is against our culture and religion, we all refuse
this, we need to be explicit for a keen analysis and practical discussions.”
She continued to say that they had broken silence on this issue, which
was essential in understanding the phenomenon and how to eliminate it.
Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, Independent Expert leading the UN Study on
Violence Against Children highlighted the importance of listening to
children, saying that it was critical to hear their voices for matters that
affect them and their inputs will provide delegates with insight and fresh
perspectives in fighting violence against children.
Pinheiro highlighted progress that had been made in the region, for
instance, some countries have prohibited corporal punishment in schools,
some governments have initiated reforms of their juvenile systems by
raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility and addressing other
issues, such as poor detention conditions. Furthermore he acknowledged
that every country in the region had ratified the ILO Convention 182 on
the Worst Forms of Child Labour, and Algeria, Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon,
Morocco, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Qatar, the Syrian Arab
Republic and Yemen had completed the questionnaires for the Violence
Study.
However, he said, “much more must be done”, where violence occurs in
the home, in schools and other institutions but is not adequately
monitored and reported, too many forms go unpunished, “there an urgent
need to ban all forms of corporal punishment everywhere.”
Other forms of violence that must be addressed include gender based
violence and discrimination, harmful traditional practices within the home,
sexual violence, domestic violence, violence against women and child
abuse, crimes perpetrated in the name of honour, female excisions, but
also the important issue of children in conflict with the law, such as the
excessive use of institutional measures, including torture and sexual
abuse.
Dr Lamia Bulbul, presented a regional overview of issues affecting children,
which aims at giving an image of the reality for children in this region. The
overview, she explained, focuses on the reasons why violence occurs, its
impact, the degree of participation of government and civil society and a
revue of definitions of violence. As in other regions, some of the challenges
include the lack of data and statistics, the lack of reporting mechanisms,
and the fact that the topic was a sensitive issue in terms of family.
Governments were then given the opportunity to make statements on
how their governments had dealt with violence against children. Most
speakers highlighted the importance of the family as a unit and therefore
the need to find solutions for eliminating violence within the home and the
family. Most governments mentioned the various international mechanisms
they had ratified, as well as initiatives that were underway, or the need
for reviewing laws and legislation.