Meeting of Geneva-based missions from 30 Pathfinding Countries.
Colleagues from the Pathfinding countries, welcome to this meeting which aims to bring the partnership to Geneva in order for us to explore how we can work together to bring the issue of violence against children into the context of health and the role of the health sector. We are pleased to host this event together with our friends from Colombia.
Every year, violence against children affects 1 billion children. That's an epidemic of violence and abuse undermining all other investments in children, including in their health and education – violence with often lifelong consequences for individuals, families and communities.
A study published by World Vision and the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children found that 76% of Community Health Workers reported observing different and severe forms of violence against children in their line of work.
Health systems have a vital role in ending this violence. The World Health Assembly endorsed the first ever global plan of action on the role of the health sector in addressing interpersonal violence and the WHO General Programme of Work includes a target to reduce violence against children by 20%. Here, the health sector needs to step up capacity and resources.
The Global status report on preventing violence against children launched earlier this year found that while 80% of countries have national plans of action and polices to eradicate child violence, just one-fifth have funded these plans fully or have measurable targets.
Globally, the COVID-19 outbreak has led to an increase in violence in families. The pandemic also threatens to set back global advances made in protecting children from violence in the home, in schools, in the community and online.
As a community, we have to step-up our efforts to catalyse the political and financial commitments necessary to end violence against children for good. The impact of COVID-19 – and the heightened risk of violence that children now face – has made these efforts more important than ever.
But we also need to better understand the secondary effects of measures taken in responding to COVID-19, and be mindful of their negative impact on public health at large – in particular on children. For example, if closing primary schools is deemed a necessary measure, how do we ensure that children receive the support they need at home? How do we ensure that they are fed? How do we ensure that they are safe?
Here better knowledge is needed in order to guide and support decision making, especially when estimating their negative consequences. Sweden believes that this will be an important aspect for the evaluation by the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response.
This week as we are celebrating the World Children's Day and the 31st anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Sweden is proud to have, earlier this year, made the UN convention of the rights of the Child into Swedish law.
Later this year, Sweden will initiate the development of a national strategy on violence against children, including honour-related violence and oppression. The Government has also decided to allocate approximately 10 million euros to NGO activities addressing increased vulnerability resulting from the outbreak of covid-19.
Finally, we would like to thank the Global Partnership End Violence Against Children for the efforts made to meet the challenges of COVID-19 and look forward to the discussions today.
