violence against children WORLD REPORT ON - CRIN

“An evidence-based approach to preventing violence against children is essential for long term success.A priority must therefore be to expand this evidence base by supporting scientific studies that measurethe effectiveness of prevention programmes everywhere, but especially in low- and middle-incomecountries where the problem is greatest.”Dr Catherine Le Galès-Camus, Assistant Director-General, WHO7use the Internet to harm children, monitoringof known offenders once they have been prosecuted,programmes to prevent people becomingoffenders, and treatment for offenders. 267Children’s participation at alllevelsResearch has shown that silence is the almost universalresponse of children suffering abuse. 268 Insuch circumstances, special efforts are requiredto make it possible for them to feel safe to discussviolent incidents. Systems of local Governmentcan play a particularly important role inthis regard; whether in the context of centralisedsystems, decentralisation, or privatisation, theyneed to include the views of children and youngpeople. A Council of Europe project on the socialinclusion of young people found that genuinePHILIPPINES, 1997, Children outside the Nayon KabataanRehabilitation Centre for street children and victims of childlabour and physical abuse in Manila.UNICEF/HQ97-0963. Jeremy Horneryouth empowerment was fundamental to developingneighbourhood strategies for violenceprevention. 269 Creating associations or supportgroups for specific groups such as children livingon the street or survivors of child abuse, withthe objective of developing a common identityand solidarity around their own issues, can bean empowering experience. It can be the springboardfor taking action on behalf of their ownagendas, including the promotion of other childrights, and for undertaking joint activity onbehalf of vulnerable peers suffering from domesticabuse, risk of child marriage, discriminationor school exclusion. 270Participation is thus a key principle to beapplied in all efforts to prevent and eliminateviolence to and by children in the community.Data collection and researchAs in all arenas of violence analysed by theStudy, there is an urgent need for better dataand for further research, particularly in developingcountries and regions. Systems need to beput in place in the health and criminal justicesectors to collect and monitor such data, withattention given to the ages and sex of perpetratorsand victims. Data sources include deathcertificates, vital statistics records, medicalexaminers’ reports, hospital records, police andjudiciary records, and self-reported informationfrom victim surveys and special studies.Special priority needs to be given to developingsystems for monitoring deaths and seriousinjuries among children and young people inregions where homicide data are currently lacking.These include Africa, South-East Asia, the333Violence against children in the community