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This report summarises the state of violence against children in the five years since the release of the UN Study. It is neither comprehensive nor exhaustive, but it is illustrative of the continued pervasiveness of violence in children’s lives.
In 2001, the UN General Assembly, acting on the recommendation of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, requested the UN Secretary-General to undertake an in-depth study on violence against children. The Study provided the fi rst global report on the extent, causes, and effects of violence against children—in the home, the school, institutions, the workplace, and the community.
It was also the first United Nations report to be based on widespread collaboration among the OHCHR, UNICEF, the WHO, non-governmental organizations, national human rights institutions, and direct consultation with children themselves. The report found that millions of children across the world were victims of sexual, physical and/or, emotional violence, many on a daily basis. Societal acceptance of violence against children appeared to be the norm and to be a key obstacle to its elimination.
The UN Study put forward 12 overarching recommendations for action. It urged states and other stakeholders to strengthen international, national, and local commitments to end violence against children; to prohibit all violence against children in national law; to promote non-violent values and awareness raising; to enhance the capacity of those who work with or for children; to ensure accountability and end impunity; and to take a range of other actions to prevent violence against children and to respond to it effectively if it occurs. The ultimate goal of the recommendations was to establish conditions that would end all forms of violence against all children. The UN Study concluded, “No violence against children is justifi able; all violence against children is preventable.”
2 five years on: A global update on violence against children the continued pervasiveness of violence in children’s lives. The data represent recent reports from academic researchers, UN agencies, and non-governmental organisations, conducted since 2006 using a variety of methodologies. Like the UN Study, we base our definition of violence on article 19 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC): “all forms of physical or mental violence, injury and abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse.”
The overall findings are cause for grave concern. Violence continues against children in all settings; some forms of violence in some settings may even be on the increase. The sad reality in 2011 is that children continue to be humiliated, beaten, burned, and sexually abused by the adults in their lives, their parents, teachers, caregivers, and employers. Children continue to be traumatised by community violence, trafficking, exposure to domestic violence, and direct physical, verbal, and sexual assault. Areas of progress are too few.