Nobody should live in fear. Yet unfortunately, many millions of children around the world do. And while recent high-profile violence in cities such as Paris and Beirut may dominate the news, the reality is that this accounts for only a fraction of the violence experienced worldwide every day.
Away from the headlines, ‘hidden violence’, which takes place in the supposed safety of places like homes and schools, continues to be perpetrated on a daily basis. Children face particular risks: every year, between 500 million and 1.5 billion children around the world experience violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect – often from people they know and trust. This threatens their survival, development and participation in society.
This ‘hidden violence’ may not generate the same high-profile media coverage, but on Universal Children’s Day, a day dedicated to promoting the welfare of children in the world, we should not forget that its consequences are no less devastating or long-lasting.
Every child’s right
Violence against children, in whatever form and whatever setting, is as preventable as it is unacceptable. More than 25 years ago, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child outlined every child’s right to be protected from violence.
More recently, the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda – which represents the most ambitious global effort yet to reduce poverty, tackle inequality and injustice and protect the planet – includes a specific target which aims to end abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children.
We must all increase our combined efforts to realise these promises. We owe it to this generation and generations to come. Children should not have to grow up in a world in which violence, and all its associated side-effects, is accepted. All children, everywhere, have the right to play and learn free from fear; to grow up in a world which enables them to reach their full potential and guarantees their well-being.
From thematic to systematic
To do so means doing more than addressing specific instances or types of violence in isolation – we must address the root causes of harm, in every country and every setting. Rather than focusing on particular categories of violations, governments must take a holistic approach which ensures all the necessary measures are put in place to protect children from all possible harm.
While there is no one-size-fits-all solution, this approach encompasses policies and legislation, providing services for families and children which are designed to prevent and respond to child protection concerns, ensuring enough child protection professionals, volunteers and community actors are properly trained, and dedicating sufficient resources to this end.
Effective child protection goes beyond governmental institutions and includes families, communities and wider civil society. Importantly, children themselves must be at the centre of the child protection mechanisms. They are not and must not be seen simply as beneficiaries of protection measures – or, worse, just as the victims of violence – but as active contributors to their own protection.
The EU’s role
While governments have the primary responsibility for ensuring children are protected from violence through appropriate legislation and services, the EU also has an important role to play in protecting children at home and in partner countries, through both its policies and funding.
The EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy, which will guide the work of the EU for the coming five years, provides a promise of action on child protection which moves towards a comprehensive systems approach as outlined above.
This must be translated into action via Human Rights Country Strategies as well as adequate and updated relevant EU policies. The EU must also use its influence to call on partner governments to prioritise child protection systems alongside issue specific interventions.
Commitments on paper must be backed up with adequate and sustained funding, via instruments such as the Development Cooperation Instrument (DCI) and the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights.
The establishment of national and local systems and strategies aiming at protecting children from all forms of violence is one of the three priorities outlined in the DCI’s child well-being programme, and with the mid-term review of the bloc’s 2014-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework just around the corner, now is an ideal moment to assess the EU’s progress in this area. We must seize this opportunity to ensure the EU is held to account for its commitments to help protect the world’s children.
Today, on Universal Children’s Day, as every other day, we have both a legal and a moral duty to protect children. A child who grows up in a safe, secure environment is more likely to achieve core developmental, educational and health goals, and will be better equipped to contribute to and participate in the development of his or her society.
But above all, children have the right to live free from fear and violence. We must all work to make sure this right is realised, for every child, everywhere.