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Rights of the child / Events / 2001 / July

UNGASS on children: statement by the Violence against Children caucus

Roberta Cecchetti, Oral Statement on Behalf of the Violence against Children Caucus, 3rd Substantive Preparatory Committee Meeting for the UN General Assembly Special Session on Children

This statement from the Violence against Children Caucus reinforces the proposals of the NGO Child Rights Caucus from the perspective of children’s right to protection from all forms of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation. The Caucus includes more than 40 NGOs; another Caucus covers armed conflict, so we focus here on other forms of violence.

We hope that delegates will agree that the Outcome Document should promote full implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and that monitoring processes on the plan of action should be integrated with monitoring and implementation of the CRC. Furthermore the Outcome Document must not undermine existing, agreed international standards.

The Caucus believes that the Outcome Document should include a call to States to review and implement necessary modifications to all domestic legislation by 2005, to ensure that it complies with the CRC. States should also withdraw any reservations.

The Violence Caucus highlights certain issues which it believes are given no, or insufficient attention in the current Outcome Document: there must be priority action to eliminate the death penalty and life imprisonment for crimes committed by those under 18; to reinstate the requirement that States must protect children from corporal punishment; to challenge the warehousing of children including infants in institutions, and to protect them comprehensively from violence; to adopt legal and other measures to eliminate sexual abuse, exploitation and trafficking of children as a crime against humanity, without criminalising child survivors; to eliminate through legal and educational measures the effects of harmful traditional practices, and crimes committed in the name of honour, dowry and bride-price related violence, and enact and implement legislation establishing the same minimum age of marriage for boys and girls.

In addition, the Outcome Document should include strategies to implement economic and social solutions to address all forms of violence, neglect, abuse and exploitation born of discrimination of any kind. In particular, programmes to improve living and working conditions for children who work, but not in the worst forms of child labour, must be consistent with the CRC and should be highlighted in the Outcome Document.

Additional key points for inclusion in the Outcome Document are the need for comprehensive public education and training programmes to be developed with the active participation and input of children to promote positive, non-violent forms of caring and discipline – targeted at all those responsible for children. Furthermore, disaggregated data collection must cover comprehensively children’s experiences of violence, including child fatalities, and the effectiveness of protective laws and interventions, and be publicly reported.

The Violence Caucus reinforces the position of the Child Rights Caucus to give juvenile justice greater attention in the Outcome Document, by creating a specific section devoted to it, under paragraph 39 in the June 9th edition.

The Caucus, believes that this section should commit to the establishment and maintanence of juvenile justice systems consistent with the principles of the CRC based on restorative justice and non-discrimination, with an emphasis on diversion and alternatives to custodial measures, where deprivation of liberty is a measure of last resort and for the shortest possible time and where the rehabilitation and social reintegration of the child are the primary focus. Ensure that, if arrested, detained or imprisoned, children are separated from adults, and are separated by age, gender and convicted status and that staff, specially trained in children’s rights are provided.

We hope delegates will share our view that goals and indicators in the Outcome Document must be more specific, action-oriented, time-bound and forward-looking – appropriate to the next decade, not the last, and to all children in all States.

A world which tolerates or approves any form of violence against children cannot be Fit for Children.

New York, 13 June 2001

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Date: July 3, 2001
Activity: Rights of the Child
Type: Events

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