Global Update on Violence Against Children

A new report titled 'Five Years On: An Global Update on Violence Against Children'  has been released by the NGO Advisory Council for Follow up to the UN Study on Violence Against Children.  This report summarizes the state of violence against children in the five years since the release of the UN Secretary-General’s Study on Violence Against Children.

The report comes five years after a United Nations (UN) study documented the magnitude of violence perpetrated against children. It surveyed over 100 separate studies conducted by academic researchers, non-governmental organizations and UN agencies since 2006.

Recent findings include:

• Across 37 countries, an average of 86 percent of children ages 2-14 experience physical or psychological violence in their home each month;
• 78 countries still authorize corporal punishment by teachers; in some countries up to 97 percent of students have been beaten in school;
• Children with disabilities are four to five times more likely to experience violence and sexual abuse than non-disabled children.
• In some countries, like the U.S. and the UK, children are two to three times more likely to be the victims of serious crimes than are adults.
• The known number of juvenile offenders executed worldwide rose by more than 50 percent in the last five years.

Marta Santos Pais, mandated by the UN Secretary-General to tackle violence against children, stated the report, "highlights how far we are from safeguarding the right of all children to develop to their full potential in a violence-free environment, as violence remains widespread, socially condoned, and in many cases considered as a lawful practice, form of discipline, or sentencing of children.”

You can access this report in full, online via the Child Rights Information Network website here. 

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