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Summary: Statement by Marta Santos Pais during a side event on sexual violence.
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1. The family plays a critical role in the prevention and the protection of girls and boys from sexual violence
The family is the natural environment for the development and well being of the child. Guided by the best interests of the child, the family has the greatest potential to provide for the care and safety of children and to build a protective environment for children to grow up.
Family love, affection and supportive advice to children help to develop their trust and confidence; nurture their self-esteem and promote a growing sense of responsibility that give competence to overcome the challenges along the way and to solve conflicts without resorting to violent means. In view of its critical role, the family is entitled to State assistance in the performance of its child rearing responsibilities.
For many children, however, the daily reality is marked by a very different environment. They experience neglect and trauma as they witness domestic violence and they further endure ill treatment and abuse, including sexual abuse, very often behind a curtain of silence and painful social indifference. As highlighted by the UN Study on Violence against Children, as many as 150 million girls and 73 million boys are raped or subject to sexual violence each year, usually by someone in their family circle. Between 133 and 275 million children annually witness domestic violence.
Children of all ages witness domestic violence. This is associated with subsequent victimisation and further violence. Girls appear to be at greater risk of sexual violence and forced and early marriage, in itself a form of sexual violence as children are unable to give an informed consent. According to available data, up to one third of adolescent girls report their first sexual experience as being forced. Pregnant and married students are often forced to leave school. Girls from poorer families and living in rural areas are most likely to be married young, as a result of social and economic pressures on their parents; they are also disproportionally victims of violence by their husbands. In some communities, the practice of female genital mutilation is maintained with the belief that it will protect girls’ virginity while being a precondition of marriage; at the same time this practice compromises girls’ health and education, puts at risk their right to life and may lead to maternal death.
Although less frequently acknowledged, sexual violence against boys is also a significant problem, including within the home. Official statistics largely under-represent the number of victims, and reporting by boys seems to be particularly hard, including as a result of shame, guilt and fear of not being believed or of suffering bullying and harassment.
2. Sexual violence has a dramatic impact on children’s rights and well being
Sexual violence has a dramatic and lasting impact on children’s physical and emotional health, on their development and education, and on opportunities to participate in social life. It leads to depression and post traumatic stress disorder, it is associated with sleeping difficulties, aggressive behaviour, substance abuse, as well as social problems, including theft and truancy. Sexual violence is associated with increased risks of sexual and reproductive health problems; it leads to unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and a high risk of exposure to HIV infection. Girls are particularly vulnerable as they are more often victims of coercive sexual relations with men who may already be infected. For those belonging to low socio-economic status there may be fewer opportunities to seek information to keep safe and to benefit from prevention, treatment and support services. Sexual violence and abuse is also linked with other forms of violence, including trafficking, and at times associated with death, including as a result of suicide and murder, as in the case of honour killings.
Sexual violence also negatively affects the social well being of child victims. Children are at times blamed for what has happened, coerced to keep it a secret and often stigmatized and marginalised by their families and communities.
3. Data and research on sexual violence remain a challenge across regions
Although being an egregious violation of children’s rights, sexual violence is a particularly difficult topic to survey as a result of its sensitive nature. Available data are scanty and fragmented, national studies are scarce and reporting remains weak and difficult. In the case of sexual violence within the home, including rape and coerced sex believed to be legitimate when within marriage, the pressure to conceal it is particularly strong, with shame, secrecy and denial leading to a pervasive culture of silence.
In spite of the limited available information, existing studies indicate that sexual assault by an intimate partner is neither rare nor limited to any particular region of the world. This is also the pattern revealed by an important national survey conducted in Swaziland, as a follow up to the UN Study on Violence against Children.
This study focussed on sexual, physical and emotional violence against girls between 13 and 24 years of age. It was the first nationally representative survey of sexual violence against female children in the country. The study helped to break the silence on violence against children and to build evidence to inform the promotion of a national strategy to effectively prevent and address this child rights violation.
According to this survey, one in three girls experienced some form of sexual violence as a child; and approximately 9% experienced coerced intercourse before they reached 18 years old. Marginalised children were at a particularly risk of sexual abuse. Children with disabilities, children out of school and orphans as a result of HIV and AIDS were amongst the most vulnerable. The convergence of large numbers of families living in poverty, lacking the resources to pay school fees for their children and leading to high rates of girls’ drop outs, together with the thousands of orphaned and vulnerable children who live on their own or with extended members of their families place these children at a particular risk of all forms of abuse.
The study also revealed that violence is perpetrated by people children know and trust. In the case of sexual violence, 75% of the perpetrators were well known to the victims, including husbands and boyfriends, male relatives and neighbours. Often occurring within the home, sexual violence remains hidden and largely kept as a family secret. Many victims depend on the perpetrators for social and economic support; these in turn, make use of their status to intimidate children and coerce them to keep silent.
As a result, reporting is rare. Children fear abandonment and reprisals from perpetrators and family members; they worry they will not be believed or will be blamed and bullied as a result; in addition, children are unaware of where to get assistance, while safe and trusted mechanisms to report violence remain largely unavailable.
The findings of the national survey were publicly released. They helped to break the conspiracy of silence around violence and sexual violence against children, and to mobilise the society towards its prevention. Enhancing understanding of risk factors and child vulnerabilities, the study laid the foundation for the development of a strategy designed to build a safe environment within which all children, including the most vulnerable, may grow up and develop to their full potential. At the same time, the study helped to identify law reform measures required to protect children from all forms of violence, to ensure the timely treatment, care and assistance of victims and to enhance the capacity of professionals to act in an effective, child sensitive and timely manner.
4. Moving forward the recommendations of the UN Study on Violence against Children, progress can be effectively achieved
With its significant findings, the Swaziland survey provides a sound basis for strengthening the child protection system in the country. But it has also become a significant reference for initiatives promoted by States in other parts of the world.
Indeed, the survey meaningfully illustrated a pattern that prevails across regions and it helped to shed light on the relevance of the recommendations put forward by the UN Study on Violence against Children. It underscored the importance for each country to shape a strategic agenda to prevent and address sexual violence, and violence against children in all its forms. And it placed a special emphasis on key dimensions of such a strategy:
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the indispensable contribution of solid data and research to break the invisibility of this phenomenon, to overcome the challenges associated with the emotional debate sexual violence against children usually generates and, not less importantly, to inform planning, policy making and social investment;
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the need to understand underlying causes and identify the groups of children who may be at a greater risk, thus also enabling well targeted policy action to safeguard the realisation of their rights;
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the importance of strong and explicit legislation to clearly condemn violence, to protect the rights of child victims and to fight impunity;
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and the urgent need for accessible, child sensitive counselling, complaint and investigation mechanisms to address effectively any incidence of sexual violence and to provide redress and assistance to victims.
Conclusion
The Human Rights panel discussion provides a strategic opportunity to accelerate progress in the promotion of these measures and also mark a turning point in the way the human dignity of the child becomes the determinant in the shaping of policy making.
We have a sound normative foundation to build upon – indeed, 2010 marks twenty years of the entry into force of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and ten years over the adoption of its two Optional Protocols, allowing us all to draw upon the critical experience the international community has gained from national implementation of these standards across regions.
Strategies can be guided by the important political commitments undertaken over the years to ensure the effective protection of children from violence, abuse and exploitation – in this regard, the Call for Action and the time bound goals agreed upon at the Brazil World Congress against Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents stand as a critical reference for follow up, and also as a reminder of the urgency of our interventions.
In this process, our action can be informed by the many good practices and lessons learnt along the way, as the Swaziland survey so well illustrates. In all regions, many other significant experiences reflect a widely shared commitment to build a strong protective environment for children, an environment where violence and sexual violence have no place.
They stand as an expression of States’ accountability for the protection of children’s rights, but they further witness the decisive role played by national independent institutions, civil society’s organizations, communities’ led initiatives and, in a unique way, children’s own determination to join hands in the prevention and the fight of sexual violence, and more broadly of violence in all its forms.
This is the vision that stands behind the process of follow up to the UN Study on Violence against Children. This is also why I look forward to joining hands with you in the steps ahead.
Read more about the side event: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=22144