Elizabeth Cousens, President and CEO of the United Nations Foundation, highlights the importance of partnership and cooperation to drive progress towards ending violence against children globally ahead of the inaugural Global Ministerial Conference on Violence Against Children.
Today, our leaders, institutions, and instruments for cooperation are being tested as never before by complex and intersecting crises. Conflict, displacement, food insecurity, political instability and climate change are just some of the threats to our ability and willingness to keep working together to create a more just, equal and sustainable world.
We can disagree about which challenges to address first, how, or when. But there is one issue that deserves our collective resolve and all the political determination we can muster, and that is violence against children.
The societal toll of violence against children
Each year, approximately 1 billion children endure physical, sexual, or emotional violence. This risk is heightened if they live in an environment experiencing armed conflict or in the areas most severely affected by climate change. Additionally, the digital space has brought about the rise of tech-facilitated violence against children at an unprecedented rate, to the point where over 300 million children have experienced online sexual exploitation & abuse in the last 12 months.
The consequences of violence against children are felt not only by those who experience it directly but by entire communities and societies.
The economic costs alone of violence against children are estimated at 5% of global GDP every year.*
Therefore, it would only be appropriate to develop and implement a societal, collective response to this problem, if we want to be successful in putting an end to it.
Why we need a comprehensive, global response to violence against children
The UN Foundation’s work focuses on helping to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across interconnected issues, including climate, health, gender equality, human rights, peace and humanitarian response. SDG 16.2 aims to end all forms of violence against children and ensure the right of every child to live free from fear, neglect, abuse and exploitation.
However, no SDGs will be successfully met if we don't change the norms, values, policies, and laws that perpetuate violence against children and the cycles of violence it generates.
In particular, we need to work on eliminating all forms of discrimination and violence against women and girls, who face unique vulnerabilities and are disproportionately impacted by violence, so that they can enjoy and expect full rights, dignity, and safety, from the home to the market, school, to the Internet.
This can only be achieved by working together and setting international standards and accountability mechanisms that take into account all the factors that perpetuate violence against children and its wide-ranging impacts.
Garnering international support ahead of the Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children
This November, the governments of Colombia and Sweden, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Ending Violence Against Children will host the first-ever Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children in Bogotá, Colombia.
This will be an unprecedented opportunity for leaders from across different UN bodies, governments, civil society, children, and survivors of childhood violence to come together to mark a new chapter in the global effort to create a safer world for children by creating an evidence-based, society-wide response to this global scourge.
This conference is a unique milestone that can turn the tide. Still, in the months leading up to it, we have an important opportunity to begin to make headway in advocating for comprehensive prevention measures to support children and families and provide healing and justice for survivors. We must build momentum and garner global support ahead of November, to ensure that we make the most of the Global Ministerial Conference.
We have a crucial opportunity, we must take it
The UN Foundation was founded 25 years ago on the belief that global problems need global solutions. We firmly believe that cooperation is the only way to advance the rights and dignity of all people in the world.
Violence against children has rarely been a priority in the international agenda and instead has often been deprioritized in favor of other development outcomes. But we know that these outcomes are not independent from one another, and that progress will be limited as long as children are not safe from violence. As an issue that impacts societies at large, we need a united, global, response to violence against children.
This is the point we must make, not only at the Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children, but also every day leading up to it.