violence against children WORLD REPORT ON - CRIN

“Religious leaders and communities of faith are well placed to confront violence against childrenand to work to heal its ravages. Religions for Peace helps the world’s diverse religiouscommunities to stand together, pooling their collective moral strengths to stop violenceagainst children in their homes and societies.”Dr William F. Vendley, Secretary General, World Council of Religions for Peace7ensuring accountability and access to justicein the fulfilment of human rights obligations.Community organisations againsttraffickingIn addition to improving training and reforminglaw enforcement generally, and ensuringthat it is functioning in accordance with internationalnorms, it is fundamental to ensureindependent monitoring and thorough investigationin all cases of State violence. Apartfrom being a core human right obligation,ensuring State accountability is crucial inbuilding trust and improving the efficiency ofsecurity policies. Impunity for perpertratorsof police violence against street children oftenallows such abuse to continue. Many policewho commit violence against children arenever investigated or prosecuted. Mechanismsmust be put in place to ensure that police andother security personnel implicated in violenceagainst children are promptly and thoroughlyinvestigated, and held accountable. The establishmentof permanent mechanisms such asombudspersons or civilian review boards toindependently receive and investigate casesof violence by the security forces can provideimportant support to ensure accountability.Special measures are also required to ensureaccess to justice by all communities, particularlythose affected by poverty and high levelsof criminal activity. It is essential to provideaccess to independent and qualified legal assistancewhen required. Mechanisms can also beestablished to facilitate the access of marginalisedgroups to justice: these vary from specialservices within courts to the placement ofspecial services to facilitate the mediation ofsmall conflicts within communities.Community-level activities can be effectiveat preventing trafficking, particularly whenworking in cooperation with law enforcementand other authorities. In East Africa,there has been some success with communitybasedwatch/vigilance systems to prevent thetrafficking of children and breaches of childlabour legislation. For example, in Benin,village committees backed by the provincialadministration have helped to reduce the traffickingof children, both by educating familiesabout the dangers of trafficking and by workingwith the police when a child from the villagegoes missing. 237In southern India’s Andra Pradesh state,another example is the Society to Help RuralEmpowerment and Education (STHREE),which was established in 1998 to address traffickingof women and children from rural areasSTHREE emphasises the role of the community,and has supported the formation ofcommunity-based Self-Help Groups (SHGs),Anti-Trafficking Committees (ATCs), and aHighway Mobile Committee (HMC). When itbecomes known that a woman or girl has beenoffered work outside the community, the localATCs ask for verification of the employer’sname, address and contact number. For thosewomen or children being sent to Kuwait or tothe Gulf, the ATCs try to verify visa status,help educate communities on the verificationof expected payment details and share cases ofvillagers being duped. While the ATCs and theHMC work directly to prevent the trafficking323Violence against children in the community