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Violence against children : 53 000 deaths per year
[mis à jour le 16 November 2007 à 12h14]
“No violence against children can be justified". These are the opening words of a report on violence perpetrated against children across the world, and published last year by the General Secretariat of the United Nations. The facts and figures it gives are frightening. And today is a good opportunity to remind ourselves of them. Monday, 19 November will in fact mark World Day for the Prevention of Child Abuse. And the following day, 20 November, will be the 18th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Isn’t this reason enough to recall these statistics?
This report is the first document really to offer an overview of the extent of violence against children. And the scale of this violence throughout the world. Because this form of violence exists in every country, irrespective of culture, education, income or ethnic make up.
violence against children can take many different forms…It can be physical or psychological, discrimination, negligence, mistreatment …
Here are a few figures: each year, worldwide, more than 53,000 children and adolescents die as victims of homicide. And 6 million are made to work as forced labour or obliged to work to pay off debts!
And that’s not all. According to the World Health Organization, in 2002 more than 150 million girls and 73 million boys under the age of 18 experienced forced sexual intercourse, whether it is through rape, incest or prostitution. That’s more than 200 million minors. The equivalent of the population of a country like Indonesia!
The UN report also refers extensively to corporal punishments inflicted at school, the use of straps and other instruments of punishment at home and in class. As well as gang warfare, infanticide – not forgetting genital mutilation.
3 million women and girls across the world suffer genital mutilation every year. It is carried out in around thirty African countries but also in certain Gulf States including Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the Emirate of Oman.
In 80% of cases this involves the excision of the clitoris or the small lips of the vulva. But the most appalling form remains infibulation, which is when an object is passed through the small lips or large lips to prevent sexual intercourse.
Quite apart from the suffering endured, these mutilations put young women and their unborn children at risk of grave complications in childbirth. A study conducted in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan and published in 2006 shows a 30% increased risk of Caesarian section. And a 70% increased risk of haemorrhage.
Sexual violence and... attempting suicide
On World Day for the Prevention of Child Abuse, the organisers have chosen to place special emphasis on sexual violence. And particularly on the consequences of this on the health and development of children.
In both the short and long term, these consequences are often very serious. According to several studies published on the subject, children who are victims of a sexual pervert begin to experience problems with the way they see themselves. And in the way they perceive the world around them.
This violence can therefore lead to an increased predisposition to social, emotional and cognitive problems, that’s to say, problems associated with learning. Victims are also haunted by feelings of shame and guilt and can lose the desire to enjoy themselves and to learn. To live, in other words.
Children who are subjected to sexual violence can therefore be particularly at risk of attempting suicide. This has been shown by a study published last year by the Atlanta Centers For Disease Control et Prevention (CDC).
Such children will also tend more to adopt forms of behaviour that pose a risk to health, such as smoking, leading a sedentary lifestyle but also, and most importantly, alcohol and drug abuse. They will therefore be more at risk than others of developing lung, heart and liver disease.
In addition to violence, each year 1 million minors are brought into the sex trade. Quite apart from the repercussions on their physical and mental health, this exploitation is also considered to be a vector for the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Young people are by nature more vulnerable to wounds and infections. Not to mention that they are rarely in a position to demand safe sex or to reject a violent aggressor.
All of these extremely serious repercussions have led the author of the report to say that “protecting children from violence is a matter of urgency”.
Today, 192 States have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. So progress has been made in many countries. But the United Nations is now calling on all States to boost prevention efforts.
With policies designed to tackle immediate risk factors. The report names some of these: “lack of parental affection, break-up of the family unit, alcohol or drug abuse and access to firearms”.
For the United Nations, this Day is more than ever an opportunity to break down still further the wall of silence that surrounds this issue. As the report’s author points out, “protecting children from violence is a matter of urgency. For centuries now, children have suffered violence at the hands of adults without it being seen or spoken about. We have a duty to ensure that children exercise their right to live safe from violence”.
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