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Summary: Roundtable discussion organised by the Secretariat for the Violence Study during the two days of the launch of the Study itself, 12 October 2006.
[NEW YORK, 12 October 2006] - Today, children and young people took part in roundtable discussion on violence against children with high level guests in New York. In this discussion, which was moderated by Moushira Khattab, Vice Chair of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, children and young people put questions to the guests which had been submitted by children and young people around the world over the last few days. These questions are available on the discussion boards of the Voices of Youth website. The high level guests who attended included: Professor Pinheiro, the Crown Prince of Norway, Rima Salah from UNICEF, Etienne Krug from WHO, Jaap Doek from the Committee on the Rights of the Child, Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, Deputy Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, Ms Mehr Khan Williams, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Wade Horn, Assistant Secretary for Children and Families of the US Government, Hon Landon Pearson from Canada, Cindy Kiro, Commissioner for Children of New Zealand, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, Minister of Public Service and Administration South Africa, and many more. Question from Ayamma, India to Professor Paulo Sergio Pinheiro Question from Natalino, Timor Leste to the Crown Prince of Norway: What steps should be taken to ensure that children and young people work together with ombudspersons to end violence? Question from Ramatoulaye, Mali to Chair of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, Jaap Doek: What can the UN do to influence governments in their implementation of the recommendations of the Study, and how can you ensure a yearly follow-up? Jaap Doek: We have a beautiful set of recommendations, some beautiful speeches of government representatives. What we want to know and you, is how we can ensure that States do what they promise if they promise anything and what can children do. The Study is there to serve you and protect you, to give you recommendations that you can use in your village, schools, families and institutions. You need to challenge the people who have the power to implement the recommendations. I think the Special representative is key for the UN commitment to protect children from violence. Why? If not, I am concerned about the possibility that all commitments evaporate into thin Question from Mary Ann, Jamaica to Wade Horn, Assistant Secretary for Children and Families: How do you think a rich and developed country like the US could help implement the recommendations in other countries? Wade Horn: First, the US needs to get its own house in order. There are too many victims in the US, we as a country need to protect our own children. Too often we talk about them but not with them, we see them as problems rather than assets. We need to empower them to develop positively, to make positive connections, to include them in decision-making processes. For instance we work in a community where now we don’t give grants unless there are young people on the decision-making panel. [...] Question from Letlolo, Lesotho to Cindy Kiro, the Children’s Commissioner for New Zealand: How do you think the Study will change the reality of children? Cindy Kiro: I think it entirely depends on how committed and truthful people are in their follow-up to the recommendations. We can each play a role, as commissioners in promoting, through networks with children and young people in our region. I think it really comes down to people making a commitment, and taking a responsibility to disseminate the study, to make sure we do what we can to ensure the creation of the post of Special Representative, do what we can so children’s voices continue to Question from Sana, Maldives to Mehr Khan OHCHR: You have done many things to combat violence against children, but there are still countries where it’s happening, so what about taking legal steps against them? Question from Congcong, China to Ms Helene Gosselin, UNESCO: What is being done in schools to educate teachers about violence and its consequences? Question from Ondina, Nicaragua to Etienne Krug from the World Health Organisation: A lot of violence is linked to alcohol and guns. What can be done to address this link? Etienne Krug: There is a range of different positions on this. In some countries guns Question from Ioana from Romania to Sumru Noyan, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC): We would like to hear some examples of how your agency will work to end the link between drugs and other stimulants and violence against children? Question from Kapaya, Zambia to Brian Gorlick, Senior Policy Advisor, UNHCR: What measures need to be taken to improve the safety of refugee children and protect them from violence? Brian Gorlick: At field level, we must meet with you as refugee children to find out Question from Alaa, Yemen to Joanne Harrell, Microsoft: What is Microsoft doing to eliminate child pornography on the internet, do you have any future plans? Question from Keysha, Canada to Carmen Madrinan from ECPAT International: What kind of laws can be introduced against those who commit sexual abuse and how they can be enforced? Question to UNFPA: What do you do to give information to children to protect Question from Mamadou, Senegal to Assefa Bekele, African Child Policy Forum: What can be done to influence companies that use children and should there be sanctions for those who use children? Question from Ramatoulaye to Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Maud de Boer-Buquicchio: Could you give us examples of what the European Union has done or will do to stop child trafficking? Question from Ondina, Nicaragua to Rima Salah, Deputy Director of UNICEF: How will a change of UN Secretary General affect UNICEF, especially in implementing the study recommendations? Rima Salah: This is a good opportunity to thank Kofi Annan for his support for the Question from Priscilla to Bill Vendley, Secretary-General, World Conference for Religions for Peace: What can be done to end harmful traditional practices? Question to Gabriela Alexandrescu, Save the Children Romania: How can NGOs and governments work together to ensure a safe environment for those in care or adoption programmes? Gabriela Alexandrescu: We work with children and know what needs they have, what we have to do. We fight for laws that will make it impossible to abuse children. We must work together to ban corporal punishment in families, in care, institutions and schools. Hitting someone is the first sign that you do not respect someone. NGOs have good models of protection, we can show governments how they too can protect children. NGOs are good engines for change. Question from Sana, Maldives to Kim Burrs, Body Shop: How are you encouraging other companies to address domestic violence in countries where you have no shops? Question from Mary Ann, Jamaica to Hon. Landon Pearson, Canada: What can governments do to support children’s organisations that work on violence against children? Hon. Landon Pearson: Violence is not rational, it’s about greed, emotions, etc. What I want you to do is communicate with us in ways that will reach the heart – that is your strength. Teach us how to listen to you. What we should do is create spaces for you so you can express yourself and we can learn to listen to you in your language. Question to Jo Becker, Human Rights Watch: If we have a Special Representative, how big a role do you think NGOs will play with a Special Representative and how involved will young people be in this? Jo Becker: I hope we will have a Special Representative, Jaap spoke well about why Harry from Venezuela gave a concluding statement at the round table discussion in which he said “Yesterday the world heard about the dramatic situation of violence that affects children. From today we need to strengthen our response to this situation. We will no longer tolerate violence in our lives… Children are not only the future, we also live the More information:
How would you like to see children and young people involved in the
implementation and monitoring of the follow-up process. Do you think a
Special Representative is needed?
Pinheiro: I think that what I have learned with the process of this Study is that we must learn to listen to children. In many societies, adults, most of the time, do not count children as full interlocutors. Perhaps the most often repeated quote of this Study, is that of Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, that “children are not mini human beings, with mini rights.” […] Finally need to ask them to the NGO Advisory panel, to keep the same structure for the future. If there will be a Special Representative to connect this mandate with the Advisory Panel with children.
Crown Prince: I am not an expert on violence against children myself, but I can talk about some of the ways that this has been done in Norway. We have an ombudsperson for children and young people in Norway. His task is sometimes to be a politician on behalf of children; sometimes as an activist on behalf of children. Children don’t have lobby groups and so the Ombudsman acts as a mediator who voices their concerns to the authorities. In Norway children can write their concerns on milk bottles and send them to the Ombudsman who sends them to the prime minister. Also engages smaller
children, with tryggve which is sent to kinder gardens and primary schools. They are helped to write down three things they like and three they don’t.
air. You have to have somebody to oversee this, to remind States of their commitment. That somebody should also be very visible, easily identifiable, accessible at UN level for children. If children have a concern the first place they can go is at the local level and if necessary to national level and if that fails, they should have someone they can go to at international level. Can we ensure it? There is very little we can assure, but we can
assure maximum efforts to do whatever is possible to protect children. The Committee on the Rights of the Child is there, it meets governments, is supported by NGOs, and UN agencies, helps governments to take action and partners with and others play an important role in that.
be heard. I know for example that the Council of Europe has taken this seriously and has set up the ‘Building a Europe for and with Children’s programme.
Mehr Khan: all countries have signed (almost), the CRC, therefore it’s binding on countries. The CRC has declared clearly that all violence against children is prohibited. I am not a lawyer, but what I can say is that I think it’s a powerful statement, and I think they will in the future monitor countries’ reports on adherence to CRC, what they have done. Laws alone are not enough, many speakers have spoken about personal commitment. Also children themselves should know about the study and talk to their parents about it.
Helene Gosselin: Children should demand their rights. Also, teachers should also be
educated in the need to stop violence against children, including corporal punishment. We believe that too many schools use corporal punishment to discipline children, this leaves them not only with immediate physical injuries, but also emotional damage. Children should say to their parents and teachers that this kind of violence is not acceptable. Governments need to make it possible for teachers to be educated about corporal punishment.
are hard to get hold of and in others they are easily accessible. Many people think that they should have guns to be safe, in some countries, alcohol is promoted. I will focus on the scientific findings. It is clear that alcohol is a major contributor to violence, and guns are too. We know that when parents are drunk they are more likely to hit or abuse their
children. Young people, when they access to alcohol are more likely to fight. When someone is drunk they are also more likely to be a victim of violence. We can do something about this, for example raise taxes on alcohol, make it more difficult to buy at some hours of the day, change the culture. We must avoid guns falling into the hands of children. It is better to avoid having them at all, but this is not always possible. Some types of weapons should not be available at all. We need to change our culture around
both issues. Guns and alcohol are glamourised in video games and on TV. I speak to media directors and they say children like this, so it is also for you to say you want other things.
Sumru Noyan: We have prevention programmes. We try to establish mechanisms to help children stay away from drugs. For children who are on the streets, poor, in gangs, involved in prostitution, or who have family members who are drug abusers, we try to establish some sports facilities, alternatives to those violent environments. Many do not know what drugs are, so we have lots of brochures, we prepare children to know about the dangers of drugs, children need to make themselves knowledgeable, you need to know what the dangers are and alert your peers to help each other.
what the problems are. Often the problems are hidden and people will not necessarily come forward. We need to find out how the camps are being run. There have been some very serious problems with sexual exploitation and violence in some camps and allegations that the very people who are supposed to protect children are doing these things. We have learned the hard to way that we have to start consulting with children. We need to listen, and to give information to children to help them protect themselves: who they can go to for help etc. When we asked children in Southern parts of Africa what the problems were, they said alcohol, that people must stop drinking, that parents need to learn about children’s rights. They also said there should be more police, more security personnel.
Joanne Harrell: We divide our work into technology and tools to prevent abuse
online. Another area is providing guidance to individuals and producing internet safety toolkits. Finally, we have partnerships in 78 countries with UN agencies and NGOs. We work with NGOs to provide education, as we believe children have to understand how to use the internet.
Carmen Madrinan: There are different kinds of sex crimes, including, child pornography, trafficking, prostitution, abuse within the family. Laws need to be quite specific to the type of crime; we need laws for each one. Legal frameworks are improving. There is a serious gap in child pornography laws. These are often weak and inadequate and do not include criminalise the soliciting of children and harassment on the internet or the possession of child pornography. So I think while we improving, there are gaps which we need to continue to work on.
themselves from HIV and AIDS?
UNFPA: We have a lot of programmes which are based on providing information to teachers, pupils an parents on issues such as sexuality, reproductive health and unsafe abortions. We strongly believe that information can empower children and young people and prevent them from violence or violent situations.
Assefa Bekele: Child labour is more than a company’s problem, it must be viewed in a national context and linked to poverty, unemployment or underemployment. If it is not, we are unlikely to deal with the problem. We need to look at what governments need to do to enhance employment opportunities to improve the situation of women in particular, who often bear the burden of responsibility. Secondly, governments need to look at
their overall educational policy: if you want to make sure children are at school and not work, governments need to provide universal education. So free compulsory education must be underpinned by employment policies.
Maud de Boer-Buquicchio: Trafficking is a modern form of slavery, this form of slavery affects children in particular, it happens in Europe too. The coercion, exploitation, takes the form of sexual exploitation, forced labour, forced marriage etc. It is important to recognise that trafficked children are victims of violence, the issue should never be presented as illegal migration, no, adults subjected to trafficking are victims. Europe has a Convention on this. It is not just for Member States, non Member States can also endorse this Convention. It emphasises the best interests of the child. If a child is a victim of trafficking, he or she should only be returned to their country of origin if this is in their best interests.
Study as it was he who told us to do it. What is important now is implementation and we hope the new SG will follow. UNICEF will not change the way it works. Children are the centre of our mandate. Four years ago you challenged us at the Special Session for Children to build a world fit for children, free from violence, free from abuse and free from neglect, which is why we will continue to implement all recommendations. We will advocate with your leaders, at national level and local level. We will advocate for
more research and better legislation. We will work in partnership, enforce the capacity of parents, help to inform them, provide access to education, health, and social services. When a family becomes fragile, we will provide alternative care. We are working in partnership with UNESCO working on concept of child friendly school, must feel safe, parents should feel confidence that when they are in schools thye are safe.
Bill Vendley: All religions ask what is the ultimate meaning of human life. At times,
there are contradictions. You should be observers of your traditions and look at how they support human dignity. In August, 400 religious youths and 700 religious leaders met in Kyoto to discuss violence against children. There is an enormous consensus we must unite, every temple, mosque, church in all villages as they are on the frontlines of protecting your dignity.
Kim Burrs: We set an example ourselves by addressing the issue within our own walls. In our shops we give people access to information about violence in the home on our products to protect themselves, and engage our employees and customers in 52 countries. We are not experts on domestic violence, we partner with NGOs, take direction from them. We also raise money for teacher training programmes, and try to set an example for other businesses and show them how to engage where we don’t have access.
we need one. A Group of NGOs worked closely with Pinheiro throughout the Study process to make sure NGOs provided input, suggestions about recommendations, and the structure of regional consultations etc. Beyond that, we have had children and young people as part of the advisory panel, for the first time. Adults thought the meetings were much better as a result. I hope we can have a group of NGOs committed to giving input, ideas and suggestions for the follow-up, and that children and young people can play a part in this.
present. These commitments to the future, but tasks for today.”