The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has expressed concern that millions of children become victims of violence around the world every year, and has also expressed concern that each four minutes a child somewhere in the world dies due to violence.
Vatican News
Vatican City, Tuesday, November 5, 2024 (REI): This disturbing statistic is reported by the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, which has published a global report on how widespread violence against children is.
UNICEF’s statement comes as world leaders, civil society, advocates, victims and young people gather this week in Bogotá, Colombia, for the first Global Ministerial Conference to End Violence against Children.
The Ministerial Conference on Violence against Children, organized by the Government of Sweden and representatives of UNICEF and the Government of Colombia in collaboration with the World Health Organization, aims to promote policies, mobilize resources and demonstrate that various forms of violence are being addressed. of violence against children. It is possible to stop and finish.
The statement details how millions of people around the world are affected by the phenomenon each year, noting that approximately 90 million children alive today have experienced sexual violence.
Greater risk for girls
It said 650 million girls and women, one in five alive today, were victims of child sexual violence.
There are more than 370 million people (approximately 1 in 8) who have experienced rape or sexual assault. Girls in vulnerable situations face even greater risks: one in four are victims of rape and child sexual abuse.
Approximately 50 million girls between the ages of 15 and 19 are victims of physical or sexual violence at the hands of their own husbands or older male friends.
Additionally, it reports that between 410 and 530 million boys and men, approximately one in seven, have experienced childhood sexual violence, including between 240 and 310 million who have been raped or sexually assaulted.
domestic violence
In addition, it highlights that 1.6 billion children, which according to UNICEF is equivalent to almost two out of every three children, “regularly face violent punishment at home.”
“More than two-thirds of children are subjected to both physical punishment and psychological attacks,” he lamented that violence claims the lives of approximately 130,000 children and adolescents under the age of 20 on average each year.
Male children are at higher risk of death
Research also reveals that children are at greater risk of dying from violence.
Three out of every four children and adolescents killed by violence were children, according to the report. The risk of dying from violence increases rapidly in late adolescence. The report states that 7 out of 10 children who died due to violence were between 15 and 19 years old and the majority of them were boys. Finally, the United Nations Children’s Fund reports that approximately 550 million children, or about one in four, live with mothers who are victims of male partner violence.
Given this reality, UNICEF described the ministerial conference as “a momentous occasion.”
Especially to provide greater protection to children around the world. Call for efforts to provide universal access to parenting support programs that promote nurturing care; A universal provision of safe and enabling school environments; And finally, a targeted response and support services for all children who need them.
