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[CAIRO, 27 June 2005] – Children addressed the plenary during the first
day of the Regional Consultation on Violence Against Children for the
Middle East and North Africa. A boy from Jordan and a girl from Egypt
presented both how they had defined different forms of violence against
children and their recommendations to the delegates.
Children met for three days before the consultation started to prepare for
their contribution. During the preparatory meeting, they classified forms
and types of violence in their countries and communities, and detected
three types of violence perpetrated against children, namely, physical
violence, psychological violence and sexual violence.
Physical violence included hitting, beating, kicking, burning, making children
work long hours, pushing them to begging, expecting them to achieve
unachievable things.
Psychological violence, which they regard as mainly gender based
discrimination and age discrimination, including: insulting, ridiculing, threat
to abuse or abandonment, rejecting the child’s lineage, (for instance when
a father would be angry and would tell his child s/he is no longer his
son/daughter), marginalisation, where a child would feel s/he is of no
value.
Sexual violence includes early forced marriage, especially for those under
18, this has psychological scars on children, mutilation of genitals, rape,
sexual harassment.
Based on the types and forms of violence children had identified, they
drew up a list of proposals for recommendations, including:
- Organise awareness seminars on how to take care of people,
gather old and young people to teach them about child rights
- Use the media to change bad customs, mass media should play
a significant role
- Improving livelihood and social and economic conditions of
parents. Poverty and financial pressures make families loose love and
understanding
- There should be special courts for dealing with family issues,
because if complainants come to court to testify then feel they are being
punished, then there is no use in complaining in the first place
- There should be systems in place to deal with the problems
victims face without separating children from their parents, other ways
should be found
- Treatment for drug addicts so that they do not end up
perpetrating violence
- Family planning, with support for parents in upbringing their
children, which includes instilling the concept of dialogue in the family
- Social workers should regularly visit families where violence
occurs
- There should be centres for children who are subjected to
violence
- There should be a committee that identifies cases of violence,
then videotapes children’s testimony so that they do not have to repeat
their story again in court
- Appoint social worker to protect children and receive complaints
Finally the speakers highlighted that they want to be involved in measures
to tackle the problem of violence against children because some of their
initiatives had been positive, for instance, where children set up online
databases and websites where children can communicate with each other
by sharing experiences and try and find solutions.