Original subtitles

Through the end violence partnership we worked with and through

partners that can catalyze and support

national action to protect children.

Using the Pathfinder Initiative to promote

the Inspire strategies to end violence as

and as governments in 33 countries have

made commitments to provide high level

political leadership, scale up evidence

based solutions, invest in

national and local data to inform planning and action

and to track progress.

They've committed to collaboration across multiple sectors

and the involvement of children.

It's important to note that no one sector

can address violence against children alone.

We all have a role to play, and the child

protection sector must work with social services,

the education and health sector, ministries

of gender, law enforcement, and the legal

and judicial systems, just to name a few.

And finally, these pathfinding countries

have committed to increase financial investment

the inspired strategies to end violence, lay

the foundation for action and investment launched

alongside the global partnership in 2016.

Inspire is a set of seven

evidence based strategies for countries and

communities working to eliminate violence against

children developed by ten global

agencies with a long history of child protection,

Inspire serves as a technical

packaging guidebook for implementing effective,

comprehensive programing to combat violence.

They focus on implementation and

enforcement of laws, norms and values.

Safe environments.

Parents and caregivers support.

Income and economic strengthening

response and support services and education

and life skills.

And I'm sure you'll hear much more about these and other

solutions in module 2.3 that

looks at how to end violence against children.

In 2020.

The Global Status Report on Preventing Violence Against Children

was released for the first time.

The report charts progress in 155

countries against these violent frameworks.

The report signals a clear need

in all countries to scale up efforts

to implement those strategies.

While nearly all countries, 88% have

key laws in place to protect children from violence,

less than half of these countries said

these were being strongly enforced.

Progress is uneven across the world.

Between 32 and 37% of countries

considered that victims of violence could access

support services, while 26%

of countries provided programs and caregiver

support.

Just 21% of countries had programs

to change.

Harmful laws.

83% of countries have national data, but

only 21% of those countries use the data

to set baselines and national targets to prevent

and respond to violence against children.

And about 80% of countries have national plans of

actions and policies.

Even so, just one fifth of these countries

have plans that are fully funded with measurable

targets.

This has a critical impact on the ability to protect

all children within a country and also has a major

impact on frontline workers, including

stress and burnout.

There's also significant work taking place to address

the growing threat of online child

sexual exploitation and abuse, with the goal

being to make the Internet safe for children.

Whilst the Internet provides enormous opportunities

for children, it can also pose a threat.

One in three Internet users worldwide is a child.

And 800 million are actively using social media.

Couple that with the fact that at any

given time, an estimated 750,000

individuals are looking to connect with children

for sexual purposes online.

And you begin to see the threat, the explosion

of smartphone technology around the world is

only catalyze this threat, and the resulting

statistics are incredibly alarming.

In 2019 69 million

videos and images of child sexual

abuse were reported to the NCMEC

the cyber tip line.

It's critical that online and offline

sexual exploitation and abuse be seen and addressed together.

In many instances, the online platform is the

vehicle to share and disseminate sexual abuse material

and criminal acts against children that take

place in people's homes and other venues.

This work is further complicated by the global policy

debate on privacy protection.

Many of the encrypted apps used today that

offer privacy to users are also being

deployed by predators to facilitate

sexual exploitation and abuse, making detection

of these crimes very difficult.

However, we did recently say a positive development in

March that recognizes the growing importance of this

work with the UN Convention on the Rights

of the Child adopted general comment 25 Embedding

children's rights online into its

larger CRC framework.

Let's now take a look at safe learning environments.

Schools have a transformative role in children's

lives, and the global community is

working to ensure it is always a positive

one and never a traumatic one.

For all girls and boys to learn, they

need to have access to safe, non violent

and inclusive learning environments independently

of where they learn at home, at school, or online.

But the reality for too many children is very different.

261 million schoolchildren experience

PE of violence.

732 million children aged

between six and 17.

And that's half of all school age children live

in countries where corporal punishment at school is not

fully prohibited.

And physical violence and bullying are widespread

in schools globally.

every month 32.4% of children have

been bullied at school, a number that translates

to one in every three kids.

At their best schools.

And teachers help vulnerable children recover, become

resilient and thrive.

They also often help to identify signs

of abuse, provide first support.

And also report violence to relevant services.

This protective and transformative welcome

could break

The intergenerational transmission

of violence while effectively addressing

harmful social norms and gender inequalities

that drive violence.

As the world assesses the best ways to reopen

schools, we have an opportunity to maximize

that protective role.

Now turning to corporal punishment.

Corporal punishment, however, is the

most common form of violence against children.

It is a violation of children's equal right

to respect the human dignity, physical

integrity and health development.

In many countries, corporal punishment

is legalized and across the world is

a socially accepted form of violence.

But this perpetuates children's status as

objects or property and makes

every other sort of extreme abuse and exploitation,

including sexual exploitation, trafficking

and forced labor more likely.

Currently, 87% of the world's

children are not protected from corporal punishment by law

and around four in five children

between the ages of two and four, they are subjected

to some kind of violence discipline at home.

But progress is possible.

40 years ago, only one country had prohibited

all corporal punishment of children.

Today, 62 states have taken the step.

For the purpose of prohibiting parental corporal

punishment is not to prosecute more parents.

It's to set a standard and send a clear message

that is no more acceptable to hit a child than to hit anyone else.

And finally, protecting children from violence in

humanitarian settings is critical for

children living in these humanitarian contexts.

COVID 19 has exacerbated preexisting

risks like child marriage or child labor

caused by financial strain.

And it's weakened the very systems and services that

are relied on to protect children.

And as a consequence, children are facing greater

risks, experiencing more harm, and

have less support and care.

Before COVID 19, one in four children was

living in a country affected by conflict or disaster.

And as of February 20, 21, across 35

humanitarian contexts,

100% reported, the populations are experiencing

severe or extreme psychological distress,

and two thirds say an increase in violence against children, including a 50% increase in child marriage risks,

and 80% report gender based violence as severe or extreme.

So now just a few words on global investments.

One of the most important areas that must be addressed

is the gap between global investments

and the scale and impact of violence against children.

Analysis of official development assistance

to end violence against children,

shows that today donor governments

invest just $0.69 per child

each year to end violence.

Well, there's still not enough funding to match growing needs.

There has been a small increase in spending

since 2015.

There's also a trend towards funding areas with

greatest need, as well as proven solution

driven interventions.

But the figures remain way too low.

And that was before COVID 19 pandemic

placed additional strain on national budgets and

on international donors.

In 2018, the total

ODA spending towards ending violence against children

was 1886 and a half million,

with 511.1 million being

dedicated specifically to projects centered on only violence against children.

Some of the largest donors in the UK, Canada,

Sweden and Finland.

But perhaps the greatest challenge of all is

to break not only the harmful attitudes, behaviors

and social norms that perpetuate violence, but

also the conspiracy of silence, the

silence of the neighbor who pretends she

doesn't hear the noise from next door.

The silence of the young boy, too terrified

to speak out about the sexual abuse is suffering at home.

and for The silence, preventing open dialog between

parents and their children on often taboo subjects,

and the silence of a teacher who does not ask

about the bruises covering one of these people.

This is a collective silence that must be

broken for the sake of victims, survivors and society.

And for those that do have the courage to speak

out, most do not receive any support.

In low and middle income settings, especially, the

proportion of child victims of violence, receiving

health and social welfare services is very low.

For instance, in some regions,

less than 10% of children who experienced sexual violence reported receiving services.

In recent years,

the global community has made significant progress in protecting children from violence.

But change is not taking place fast enough for the 1 billion children.

We experience violence every year.

Even before the impacts of COVID,

more work is needed to address barriers and social norms that perpetuate violence.

Strengths in the legislative environment,

institutional frameworks and child protection systems.

And increase the reach and impact of

evidence based programs to prevent violence

so that no child is Left Behind.

This calls for stronger political leadership and partnerships.

The effective and timely implementation of existing commitments

and more ambitious policy

and funding commitments proportional to the scale and impact.

Together to end Violence is a campaign and Solution Summit series

working across all parts of the world

to respond to this challenge by inspiring

the indigenous community to work together

to accelerate action as it world build back better and safer for children

during COVID 19 and beyond.

As the world emerges from COVID and

begins to reimagine a more just and inclusive society,

now is the time for us to redouble our efforts

and translate what we know works

to realize our shared vision of a world where

every child is safe at home, at school, online

and within their community.

A world where every child can grow up and strive for dignity.

Where legal standards might violence against children

legally and socially unacceptable.

And the relationship between parents and children

prevents the intergenerational transmission of violence.

Where children in every community can safely take

advantage of the digital world for learning, playing

and socializing with girls and boys

experience stronger educational outcomes

because schools and other learning environments are safe,

inclusive and supportive.

A world where every effort is made to protect

the most vulnerable children from all forms of

violence, exploitation and abuse, including

those living in situations of conflict generally.

Thank you.

To find out more, please explore the end violence website

at end-violence.org.

Thanks.