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Summary: Agreement adopted by participants at the
Europe and Central Asia Regional
Consultation for the UN Study on violence
against children, that took place from 5 to 7
July 2005.Ljubljana, 7 July 2005
Aware of all forms of violence against children taking place across different
settings, including the home and family, schools and residential
institutions, in the workplace and in the community, including as a
consequence of acts of terrorism, conflicts and war,
Emphasizing the importance of the Convention on the Rights of the Child
as well as its Optional Protocols as the standard for the protection of
children from all forms of violence and that its provisions as well as other
relevant international human rights instruments, including the Convention
against Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, must constitute the
minimum framework for addressing all forms of violence against children,
Recalling the importance of effectively implementing regional treaties for
the prevention of all forms of violence against children, including the
Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
and its Protocols and the European Convention for the Prevention of
Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and its
Protocol, as well as of ratifying and implementing without delay the
European Convention on Compensation of Victims of Violent Crimes, the
Revised European Social Charter and its Additional Protocol and the
Convention on Contact concerning children, the Council of Europe
Convention on the prevention of terrorism and particularly its provisions
concerning victims,
Bearing in mind the final recommendations adopted by the Committee on
the Rights of the Child at its 2000 and 2001 Days of General Discussion on
respectively “State violence against children” and “Violence against
children within the family and in school”, the general body of jurisprudence
of the Committee on all forms of violence as well as of other relevant
human rights treaty bodies, the jurisprudence of the European Court of
Human Rights and the conclusions of the European Committee of Social
Rights,
Recognising the diversity of settings in which violence against children
takes place across the Europe and Central Asia region and that factors
such as gender, ethnic or social origin and disability put some children at
greater risk than others; recognising that the wall of silence around
violence in the family including corporal punishment, remains to be broken;
recognising that violence in schools and out-of-school settings, public and
private institutions and workplaces needs to be better monitored, and that
prevention efforts need to be prioritised; recognising equally the diversity
of opportunities to prevent violence and protect victims through different
socio-economic structures and programmes,
Being aware that violence poses a large burden on the physical and
mental health of children, with long lasting consequences on their holistic
development, often only manifested later in life,
We, the participants, recognise the importance of a child rights approach in
order to bridge the gap between standards and reality, and the challenge
of changing perceptions in society, in structures of governance and at an
individual level, of what are acceptable ways of behaving towards children.
We agree to take the following actions as a matter of priority:
1. Develop and put into action, with the active assistance of civil society
organisations, measures at all levels to prevent violence against children
through interdisciplinary and participatory approaches that include
professionals from different sectors and backgrounds, parents and
children, and which are supported at the highest possible political level;
2. Ratify relevant international treaties, enact, amend or repeal all
domestic legislation as necessary in order to prohibit all forms of violence
against children including corporal punishment and humiliating treatment,
and take all necessary measures to prevent and sanction such offences
against children; also pay special attention to the development of juvenile
justice procedures to prevent violence against children in all stages of the
process;
3. Give the highest visibility and political importance to the prevention of
violence against girls and boys, including, for example, the launching of
public information campaigns to raise awareness about the scope and
negative consequences of all forms of violence ; and to do this by means
of developing sustainable partnerships with children, parents, civil society,
the private sector, new information technology industries and mass media;
4. Upgrade technical, legal, procedural and institutional capacity across
relevant sectors, such as education, health, justice, protection services
and labour inspections to identify violence and put in place appropriate
evidence-based strategies and explicit family and child policies to prevent
violence, support child victims and strengthen reporting, referral and
response;
5. Seek to establish, analyse and regularly monitor, the extent of different
forms of violence against children, collect disaggregated data by sex, age
and other relevant factors, including the sources of discrimination that
make some groups of children particularly vulnerable to violence, and
systematically evaluate the appropriateness and effectiveness of
interventions to protect children from violence, as well as efforts to provide
timely assistance and address the consequences of abuse, including its
social and economic cost for society;
6. Intervene in an early, effective, gender sensitive and child friendly
manner to prevent victimization and re-victimization, through development
of sensitive procedures and mechanisms, including provision of confidential
advice; child-friendly judicial proceedings, and supportive health and
protection services to ensure the physical and psycho-social recovery of
affected children and children perpetrators of violence;
7. Develop systematic and integrated education on child protection,
encourage training for parents, all relevant professional groups and the
mass media, that include information on human rights standards, on non-
violent methods of conflict resolution and discipline, as well as on child
development and the rights of children with special needs;
8. Strengthen and develop further all forms of international and cross-
border co-operation, including prevention of criminal activities, in order to
prevent and combat all forms of violence against children and to ensure
that perpetrators of such violence do not escape justice and receive
appropriate treatment;
9. Create opportunities for children and young people to play a more
active role in addressing violence, equipping children with the knowledge
and skills to be better able to recognise violence, and establishing
mechanisms to ensure their participation in situation analysis, research
and monitoring, and in the design of laws and policies that affect them;
We, participants from all the countries of the European and Central Asian
Region, agree that these 9 steps will be the first important steps that we
will take at domestic and regional level to address violence against
children.