[child-rights] Invisible in violence - children in Europe and Central Asia

UNICEF Press release

LJUBLJANA/GENEVA, 5 July 2005 - The invisible faces of children across
Europe and Central Asia (ECA) who are subjected to daily abuse and
violence in the home, school, community and residential institutions will
come into sharp focus at a conference starting today in Ljubljana,
Slovenia.

‘Stop Violence Against Children – ACT NOW’ runs from 5-7 July and is
hosted by the Government of Slovenia and organized in close collaboration
with the Council of Europe, UNICEF, WHO, the Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights and the NGO Advisory Panel on the UN Study
on Violence Against Children.

This consultation is one of nine worldwide that will feed into a major
study by the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, on Violence Against
Children* due out in 2006. The Study is headed by Prof Paulo Sergio
Pinheiro who will address the assembly in Ljubljana.

Delegations from all over the region will confront some harsh home
truths, literally and figuratively: the home is not always the safest
place for a child. In the European Region alone, four children aged
0-14-years are killed every day - or over 1,300 every year - as a
result of homicides or assaults.

In addition, gaps in knowledge and data on violence against children are a
regional affront: the depth and extent of the problem is not known and the
spotty research available can only provide an approximation.

In an effort to address gaps, the Slovenian Government commissioned a
survey into violence in the home to inform preventive policy**.
Preliminary results from the survey reveal that of adults questioned:

- only 56 per cent would “certainly” inform the police if they knew
that neighbours were frequently beating their child 
- only 49 per cent would “certainly” inform the police if their close
relatives were psychologically abusing their child
- 73 per cent stated they had personally experienced family violence
as a child 
- 33 per cent knew one or more families, where slapping was the
normal way of disciplining children 
- 56 per cent knew one or more families, where shouting at children
was the norm.

Regionwide, what few data there are, speak for themselves:

- The risk of homicide is about three times greater for children
under the age of one than for those aged 1-4. That age group, in
turn, faces double the risk of those aged 5-14. 
- Studies carried out in 14 European countries put the rate of sexual
abuse both within and outside the family at 9 per cent: 33 per cent
for girls and 3 to 15 per cent for boys; in Slovenia there were 26
reported cases of sexual abuse by those in a position of power in
2004. 
- Girls are more often bullied than boys. Boys carry out 85 per cent
of the attacks. There are very few studies on girls as bullies.
Eighty per cent of violence is carried out by the 12-16 age group. 
- In Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Kyrgyzstan and Moldova
there is no explicit ban on corporal punishment in institutions. 
Gang violence has risen steeply in Eastern Europe. In the Russian
Federation, homicide rates for young people aged 10-24 rose by over
150 per cent after the collapse of communism. Shootings more than
doubled in Azerbaijan, Latvia and the Russian Federation.

Delegates old and young  some 25 young people are attending– will work
to come up with a list of things to do now and in the medium and longer
term to lift the veil of secrecy enshrouding the issue and to set up
effective avenues of redress for those trapped in the terror, isolation
and silence of brutality.

All countries in ECA have a legal framework for action the Convention on
the Rights of the Child but obligations are flouted day after day by
state, social services, law enforcement officials, community, media,
family.

Complicit and permissive attitudes to violence against children will be
challenged and the media invited to play a pivotal role in shaping views
on children commensurate with their dignity as human beings, citizens and
vulnerable by virtue of age and size.

In schools, bullying and worse forms of violence take a toll in suicides
or ruined lives; the community provides scant refuge for thousands of
children living on the streets or merely ‘hanging out’; and most
institutions of detention or imprisonment across ECA should be denounced.
Nor are children necessarily safe and cherished in residential care.

Individual responsibility to speak out on violence against children will
also be stressed in the coming days.



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