14Survivor leaders assembled
14 adult survivor advocates from around the world were assembled by the Brave Movement to represent survivor voices and highlight our advocacy push for national survivor councils.
A landmark event to end violence against children2024
Main Site
A landmark event to end violence against children
TfG's report
Bogotá, 7-8 Nov, 2024
1st Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children
Together for Girls and the Brave Movement influenced this landmark event through both our high-level and grass-roots preparatory advocacy. We extensively advocated for government commitments to end violence against children through evidence-based programming informed by survivor voices and experience. We championed the global creation of national survivor councils, while coordinating the meaningful, safe participation of survivor leaders throughout the conference.
We also unveiled the world's first figure measuring how many boys and girls experience childhood sexual violence in their lifetime. It remains a global pandemic but through attending the first Ministerial conference, we all broke the record on inaction, and we'll continue to do so by holding governments accountable to their pledges. With this new global data we can catalyze our action to break the cycles of violence and ensure prevention, healing, and justice.
Violence is preventable. Change is possible.
Our highlights from the conference:
01Our impact
Our impact at the first Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children
2countries committed to do a Violence Against Children and Youth Survey
The world's 1stglobal prevalence rates on childhood sexual violence
1 in 5 girls and 1 in 7 boys - learn more
43,000 visitsto the Break the Record website in the first month of the campaign
10 million peoplereached by Together for Girls' "Break The Record" campaign
23government pledges to address to address online safety
Pledges to increase survivor engagementby countries from around the world
30influencers joined our #BreakTheRecord campaign
101 countriescommitted to renew policies and funding to prevent violence against children
1 record brokenfor the most ministers at a global conference to end violence against children
Guinness Book of Records
19panel opportunities for Global Survivor Council members
02Championing survivor-led advocacy
Ensuring meaningful survivor engagement in the design and delivery of the conference and the final political declaration.
The Brave Movement led the coordination of the Global Survivor Council (GSC). It brings together individuals from survivor-led networks across the globe who can speak to all forms of violence against children. This major step ensures survivor voices are heard at the most important ever gathering of world leaders dedicated to ending violence against children.
Brave also advocated to ensure that survivor engagement at the Conference followed the official “Guidelines for policymakers on engaging with victims and survivors of child sexual exploitation and sexual abuse”, co-created by Brave Movement co-founder and GSC member Professor S Caroline Taylor AM and GSC and other survivor leaders, which have been adopted by all Council of Europe member states.
Global Survivor Council experienced positive recognition as experts:
"Every single detail was thoughtfully designed to be trauma-informed, respectful, caring, and supportive, ensuring that all delegates felt seen and heard. For the first time, I experienced an event where survivors were leading the narrative, not passively sharing stories, but actively shaping solutions on a global stage."
"The Together for Girls delegation ensured that survivor voices were actively listened to and valued during discussions. They consistently acknowledged our lived experiences without judgment and created an environment where sharing felt voluntary, not forced. Additionally, their use of clear and sensitive communication, along with offering moments to pause and reflect, showed their commitment to a trauma-informed approach."
“Trauma-informed survivor care and support is critical for survivor-led advocacy. We must safeguard against traumatization and risk for these individuals, to show up and share their expertise and experiences, by ensuring they have someone with them to promote safety and trust. Protecting survivor advocates’ physical, emotional and psychological safety makes all the difference for their own engagement, and for change to happen. To have survivor healing and empowerment through these key advocacy opportunities we have to make sure survivor advocates can thrive in the spaces where they are being invited.”
Media coverage
Global Survivor Council members took part in interviews with national and international media ahead of and during the Global Ministerial Conference.
They showcased their knowledge and expertise as survivors, leaders and advocates, highlighting the crucial need for national governments to ensure robust survivor engagement and leadership in their pledges to end violence against children.
- Safe to learn and thrive: ending violence in education
- Using serious joy to talk about and respond to childhood sexual violence
- What does it really mean to be child-centered and trauma-informed?
- In our hands: ending violence against children through multi-sectoral prevention and early intervention support services
- Safety education is the most powerful safeguard for children
- Bold and transformative action to end childhood sexual violence online
- Child marriage is sexual violence against children
Elevating survivor voices on all high-level discussions is critical to successfully address childhood sexual violence.
By strongly positioning survivor advocates on multiple panels we achieved recognition of our framework: prevention, healing and justice, to finally ensure that interventions are based on a true understanding of being trauma-informed and child-centered.
Global Survivor Council members took part in 19 events throughout the conference, focusing on critical subjects such as school-related gender-based violence, legislative and policy reform, and multi-sectoral strategies to end violence against children.
Significantly, we co-hosted a full-day event with Safe Online on safe digital futures in alignment with the Brave Movement's global campaign, and a satellite event with World Vision International on ending child marriage, an Africa Region priority of ending harmful practices for the Brave Movement.
03Data-driven campaigning
We broke the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ for the most countries represented at a childhood violence summit.
This first ever Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children was the largest organized event to address this issue on a global scale.
Most importantly, as a result, we also broke the world’s record of inaction against childhood sexual violence.
Equipped with precise objectives and groundbreaking data, we have the tools we need to end childhood sexual violence.
How? As with many things in life, it all comes down to numbers. Because change begins with understanding, and understanding begins with measurement.
This book’s purpose is to measure and understand, so that in years to come the world can finally put an end to childhood sexual violence, for good.
NEW: The first global prevalence figures on childhood sexual violence
In the past year, 82 million girls and 69 million boys have experienced some form of sexual violence. That's roughly 3 girls and 2 boys per second.
Data from 193 countries and relevant to the experiences of 2.4 billion young people
Compiled by TfG in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), Georgia State University, China Agricultural University, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and University of Edinburgh.
International media coverage of Break the Record!
132pieces of coverage
Total number of online, offline and social coverage
2.52Mestimated views
Prediction of lifetime views of coverage, based on audience reach & engagement rate on social
1.72Baudience
Combined total of publication-wide audience figures for all outlets featuring coverage
04High-level advocacy
Advocating for country commitments to end violence against children
Together for Girls and the Brave Movement seized the transformative potential of this conference to help catalyze a global policy shift.
In the run-up to the conference, we conducted in-country advocacy – including at the grassroots level – in 12 priority countries with the largest potential to achieve transformational change through robust pledges in Bogotá.
At the Global Ministerial Conference, we made the most of this unprecedented platform to spotlight childhood sexual violence at the global policy level, catalyze global action at the highest levels of political decision-making, secure new country commitments, and accelerate progress toward the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to ensure that every child lives free from violence.
Calls to action and policy positions
We convened survivor-leaders from across the globe, and called on all Member States to leverage this opportunity for substantial change through the following 5 commitments and actions:
“A landmark on the journey to making all children safe. If the level of political will demonstrated here in Bogota is sustained, if governments back up their new commitments with energy and resources, and if donors play their part in supporting initiatives we know work, we can finally break the record of inaction on violence against children, especially sexual violence. In order to do that, we must keep mobilizing and campaigning. As activists, it’s our job to hold those in power to account on the promises they have made this week.”
Standout achievements from the Global Ministerial conference include:
101 national government pledges on preventing violence against children
A US$125m commitment by The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation to ending violence against children over the next five years.
23 government pledges on online safety, recognising this escalating crisis.
Survivor recognition with members of the Global Survivor Council, speaking across the Conference and side events, and with pledges by countries to set up sustainable survivor consultation in future policy development.
Pledges on ending childhood sexual violence from countries Together for Girls and the Brave Movement had lobbied ahead of the conference, including Kenya, Honduras, France, the United Kingdom, and Nigeria.
Driving action through partnership
By working across sectors, our high-level advocacy raises awareness among policymakers, calling for commitment by governments to prevent and end violence against children in their nations through evidence-based programming that includes and elevates survivor voices, leadership and expertise.
We're advocating for:
Bold new commitment scaling from existing efforts (“INSPIRE” Strategies for Ending Violence Against Children)
Re-imagined Member State-led initiative on child protection (“Pathfinders 2.0”)
First-ever global child/youth-led movement dedicated to child violence prevention
An internationally consulted Political Declaration
A platform for public survivors to share their expertise and experience
Together, we are creating a world where every child and adolescent is safe, protected, and thriving.