United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), along with World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the End Violence Partnership, launched the 'Global Report on Preventing Violence Against Children 2020'.
According to the report, half of the world's children, or approximately 1 billion children are affected by physical, sexual and psychological violence each year. This is a result of countries failing to adhere to established strategies to protect children, leading to injuries, disabilities and even death.
“There is never any excuse for violence against children", said WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “We have evidence-based tools to prevent it, which we urge all countries to implement".
"Protecting the health and well-being of children is central to protecting our collective health and well-being, now and for the future".
The first of its kind report, chartered progress from 155 countries against the 'INSPIRE' framework; a set of seven strategies for preventing and responding to violence against children. The research was conducted between 2018 and 2019 with responses from over 1,000 decision-makers.
While 88 percent of the countries have key laws in place to protect children against violence, only 47 percent said these were being strongly enforced, signalling a clear need for countries to scale up efforts to effectively implement them.
The report also reveals the first-ever global homicide estimates for children under the age of 18. It finds that, in 2017, roughly 40,000 children fell victim to homicide.
“Violence against children has always been pervasive, and now things could be getting much worse", said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore.
“Lockdowns, school closures and movement restrictions have left far too many children stuck with their abusers, without the safe space that school would normally offer"
Urging countries to bolster their efforts, the UNICEF Executive Director requested countries to designate "social service workers as essential and strengthening child helplines”.
Of the INSPIRE prevention and response strategies, school enrollment showed the most progress with 54 percent of countries reporting that a number of children in need were participating in a school system.
Although 83 percent have national data on violence against children, 21 percent utilized the data to formulate action plans with violence prevalence indicators accompanied by baseline and national targets.
Moreover, 32 to 37 percent of countries declared that support services were found to be accessible, for victims of violence.
While 26 percent of countries provided programmes on parent and caregiver support, only 21 percent of countries had programmes to change harmful norms.
Present findings show that roughly 80 percent of the countries have some mechanism to support national violence prevention work, however, only 21 percent reported plans that are fully funded and include measurable targets.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, and the related school closures, we have seen a rise in violence and hate online – and this includes bullying", said UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay.
She further stated that as schools begin to re-open, children are expressing their fears about going back to school.
“It is our collective responsibility to ensure that schools are safe environments for all children. We need to think and act collectively to stop violence at school and in our societies at large", said Audrey.
Although online communities have become central to maintain many children’s learning, support and play, an increase in harmful online behaviours such as cyberbullying, risky online behaviour and sexual exploitation were identified.
Stay-at-home measures including school closures have limited the usual sources of support for families and individuals such as friends, extended family or professionals. This further erodes victims’ ability to successfully cope with crises and the new routines of daily life. Spikes in calls to helplines for child abuse and intimate partner violence have been observed.
Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General Najat Maalla M’jid said that to respond to the crisis, a unified child rights and multisectoral framework is crucial, requiring a strong mobilization of governments, bilateral/multilateral donors, civil society, private sector and by children, "whose views must be heard and truly taken into account to ensure duly protection and the possibility for all to thrive and reach their full potential".
The UNICEF report comes at a time when much discussion is raised on the status of children in Maldives. Among the issues are disparities between public and private schooling systems, available support services and sexual abuse. Economic burdens on families also increase the likelihood of harm to children in various aspects of their lives.
Further, the government is yet to act on its pledge to reduce the number of cases and increase the number of arrests and successfully pressed charges against offenders.
“Ending violence against children is the right thing to do, a smart investment to make, and it’s possible. It is time to fully fund comprehensive national action plans that will keep children safe at home, at school, online and in their communities,” said End Violence Partnership's Dr Howard Taylor.
“We can and must create a world where every child can thrive free from violence and become a new generation of adults to experience healthy and prosperous lives".
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