Submitted by crinadmin on
Summary: The consultation in East and Southern Africa is
taking place in Johannesburg, South Africa
from 18 to 20 July 2005.[JOHANNESBURG, 18 July 2005] - The ninth and last consultation for the UN
Study on violence against children opened today in Johannesburg. The
consultation is gathering over 150 representatives from 21 countries from
East and Southern Africa, including government representatives, NGOs,
and children. The 54 child participants from the region met for two days
prior to the consultation to prepare their contribution to the consultation.
Up until a few weeks ago, there were still doubts as to whether this
meeting would be taking place, as it had already been postponed on
several occasions. A representative of the South African Ministry of
Education explained that this was a ‘preparatory’ consultation because
most countries in the region had not yet submitted their questionnaires to
the Secretariat, and the African Union had not been fully involved in this
process. It is still unclear whether a regional consultation will be taking
place at a later date.
The goal of this meeting, she explained, will be to produce practical
interventions to end violence against children, policy formulation, review of
legislation, and recommendations. Three main themes will be discussed
during this meeting: sexual and gender-based violence, corporal
punishment, and HIV/AIDS and its relationship to the incidence of violence
against children. Areas of focus will include: existing legal frameworks,
institutional frameworks, policies, programmes and resources, the role of
civil society, data collection and research, and awareness, advocacy and
training.
Professor Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the Independent Expert leading the UN
Study, highlighted the importance of children’s participation, as “children
can see things that adults cannot or do not want to see”. He encouraged
those governments that had not yet submitted their questionnaires to do
so.
So far, 111 countries in total have submitted their questionnaires to the
Secretariat for the Study, including more than 11 in this region, including
Angola, Comoros, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mauritius, Namibia and Uganda.
“Violence used as a means of discipline remains culturally acceptable”, he
said, “the perception that families, schools and other institutions have an
unquestionable authority to use whatever methods and forms of
punishment they choose to discipline their children means that many forms
of violence that can take place in those settings go unnoticed and
unpunished” he continued. “We need to make this a competition among
states to be the first to guarantee children their fundamental right to
respect for their human dignity and physical integrity” he added.
Per Engebak, UNICEF Regional Director, underlined some of the concerns
specific to this region, including the high number of children who are, or
have been infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. He said that some of the key
messages to young people such as abstention or faithfulness, do very
little to protect children. The impact of armed conflict, natural disasters,
structural poverty, also contribute to the weakening of social fabric of the
community. Furthermore, there is a limited understanding of children’s
rights, underlying beliefs that lead to harmful traditional practices and a
lack of information and research about causes and incidence of violence
against children.
Children then summarised what they had been doing over the past two
days, during which they shared their experiences, talked about different
forms of violence and how they themselves have been coping with this. In
their recommendations to the participants they said they wanted
perpetrators to be punished, parents to be good examples to their
children, judges and magistrates should receive training on how to deal
with children, and awareness campaigns should be organised to inform
everyone about children’s rights.