Nov 18
KATIM TOURAY asked:
The following recommendations are guided by the human rights obligations of Governments under the CRC and other instruments, and are also based on evidence from research and existing practice. They recognize that, while the primary role in children’s’ upbringing is accorded to the family, Governments have obligations to ensure that in all places – including in the home – children are protected from actions constituting violence against them, and that there is an effective response when violence occurs. In addition, Governments are required to provide appropriate support and assistance to parents.
Prioritize prevention
1. Ensure that comprehensive systems to prevent violence and protect children are implemented at scale, in ways that respect the whole child and their family, their dignity and privacy, and the developmental needs of girls and boys. Governments should ensure that response systems should be coordinated, aimed at prevention and early intervention, linked to integrated services that extend across sectors – legal, education, justice, social, health, employment and other necessary services. Respect for the views of the child in all matters and decisions which affect them should be assured. Governments have the obligation to develop evidence based standards to facilitate effective and sensitive service delivery for children in all parts of the country.
Societal level
2. Assess the impact of public policies on children and their families. Governments should conduct social impact assessments which give particular attention to the potential impact of public policies on violence against children – especially discrimination, social and economic stress, and other risk factors relevant to family violence against children. The results should be used to prioritize economic and social safety nets which directly benefit families.
3. Increase economic and social safety nets for families. These should include family support centers which can provide assistance, including that provided in emergency situations; and they should help to develop supportive networks through providing quality child care facilities and pre-school enrichment programs; and through respite programs for families facing especially difficult circumstances; and also by giving attention to underlying factors such as education, housing, employment, and social policies and opportunities.
4. Implement evidence-based advocacy programs on violence prevention. At the society and community level, Governments should support strategies that aim to raise awareness of child rights, and promote change in social and cultural norms, gender equity/equality, and non-discrimination. Such programs should target Government sector workers, including police and justice system staff, educators, health workers, and the private sector, as well as parents and the general public. Governments have the obligation to initiate and support awareness campaigns that promote non-violent relationships and communication with children, as well as the positive involvement of men and boys in family life.
Legal measures
5. Develop an explicit framework of law and policy in which all forms of violence against children within the family are prohibited and rejected. Governments have the obligation to prohibit and eliminate all forms of violence against children in the home as well as in other settings. This includes all harmful traditional practices, sexual violence, and all corporal punishment, in accordance with the CRC and other human rights instruments (see the Committee’s General Comment on corporal punishment, No. 8, June 2006). Clear guidance and training should ensure that the law is implemented sensitively, in line with the best interests of the child. Legal reform should be linked with advocacy and awareness raising activities to promote positive, non-violent relationships with children.
6. Ensure that family courts and other parts of the justice system are sensitive to the needs of children and their families. Governments should ensure that child victims of family violence are not re victimized during the justice process, nor subjected to extended or drawn-out legal processes. Child victims should be treated in a caring and sensitive manner throughout the justice process, taking into account their personal situation and immediate needs, age, gender, disability and level of maturity, and fully respecting their physical, mental and moral integrity.
In particular, Governments should ensure that investigations, law enforcement, prosecution and judicial processes take into account the special needs of the child, bearing in mind the Guidelines on Justice for Child Victims and Witnesses of Crime (ECOSOC Resolution 2005/20). In this regard, the child should be accompanied by a trusted adult throughout his or her involvement in the justice process, if it is in his or her best interests; the child’s identity and privacy should be protected; confidentiality should be respected; and the child should not be subjected to excessive interviews, statements, hearings and unnecessary contact with the judicial process.
Consideration should be given to the use of pre-recorded video and other testimonial aids, such as the use of screens or closed circuit televisions, as well as to eliminating unnecessary contacts with the alleged perpetrator, or their defense. In particular, if compatible with the legal system and with due respect for the rights of the defense, professionals should ensure that the child victim of violence is protected from being unnecessarily cross-examined, that the general, public and the media are excluded from the courtroom during the child’s testimony, and that guardians ad item are available to protect the child’s legal interests. Speedy trials should also be ensured, unless delays are in the child’s best interests.
Strengthen coordinated responses
7. Provide pre-natal and post-natal care, and home visitation programs for optimizing early childhood development. These measures should be aimed at building on the strengths of the family and the community to promote healthy child development, and the early detection and support of families with problems. Governments should ensure that such programs include information on the importance of attachment and the physical, emotional, and cognitive development of infants and young children as well as attention to cultural factors.
8. Implement culturally-appropriate and gender-sensitive parenting programs and programs that support families to provide a violence-free home. Governments should ensure that important components are included in these programs such as: the importance of attachment bonds between parents and their children, and increasing understanding of the physical, psychological, sexual, and cognitive development of infants, children and young people in the context of social and cultural factors; expanding child-rearing and parenting skills for fathers and mothers, including promoting non-violent relationships and nonviolent forms of discipline, problem-solving skills, and the management of family conflicts; addressing gender stereotypes, and emphasizing the involvement of men and boys in family life. Governments must develop such programs in compliance with human rights norms, and also with reference to scientific evidence regarding the effectiveness thereof.
9. Protect especially vulnerable children in the family, and address gender issues. Governments should ensure a focus in all research, prevention, and response initiatives dealing with the family, on the situation and risks of children who are especially vulnerable to violence; for example, children with disabilities, refugee and other displaced children, children from minority groups, children without parental care, and children affected by HIV/AIDS. Special efforts are required to understand and respond to the differing risks which may be faced by girls and boys, and to pay attention to the concept of masculinity and gender stereotypes on violence experienced by girls and boys.
Build capacity
10. Build capacity among those who work with children and their families. Governments should ensure that professionals and non-professionals who work with and around children and their families receive adequate training and ongoing capacity building which includes basic information on children’s rights and the law, violence against children, its prevention, early detection and response, nonviolent conflict management, and children’s rights. In addition, workers must have a clear understanding of the physical, sexual, emotional and cognitive development of children and young people, and the links between gender and violence. Specific skills in communicating with and involving children in the decisions affecting them should also be promoted.
Build information systems
11. Implement civil registration universally, including the registration of births, deaths, and marriages. Governments should ensure free and accessible civil registration with free certification, and should remove penalties for late registration. The process must be advocated widely, and facilitated and implemented in cooperation with local government, hospitals, professional and traditional birth attendants, police, religious and community leaders, and other partners in order to ensure universal uptake.
12. Develop a national research agenda on family violence against children. Governments should put in place a set of national priorities for research that can supplement information systems with in-depth qualitative and quantitative research. Guided by international indicators and standards, Governments and their partners should strengthen information systems through improved surveillance of reported cases of family violence against children, and also through population based research which includes estimates of the prevalence of childhood victimization. Risk and protective factors related to violence can also be assessed by retrospective studies of childhood, and by interviewing young adults.
Data should be disaggregated to make visible the scale and scope of the experiences of girls and boys of different ages that are related to violence and overcoming it, their situations, and their risk and protective factors. Such efforts should include confidential interviews with the children themselves, with special attention given to vulnerable groups and their families, as well as to parents and other caregivers and adults, and appropriate ethical safeguards should be put in place. The information gathered should be shared widely to inform public policy and related action.
Kaliyah Salazar
The following recommendations are guided by the human rights obligations of Governments under the CRC and other instruments, and are also based on evidence from research and existing practice. They recognize that, while the primary role in children’s’ upbringing is accorded to the family, Governments have obligations to ensure that in all places – including in the home – children are protected from actions constituting violence against them, and that there is an effective response when violence occurs. In addition, Governments are required to provide appropriate support and assistance to parents.
Prioritize prevention
1. Ensure that comprehensive systems to prevent violence and protect children are implemented at scale, in ways that respect the whole child and their family, their dignity and privacy, and the developmental needs of girls and boys. Governments should ensure that response systems should be coordinated, aimed at prevention and early intervention, linked to integrated services that extend across sectors – legal, education, justice, social, health, employment and other necessary services. Respect for the views of the child in all matters and decisions which affect them should be assured. Governments have the obligation to develop evidence based standards to facilitate effective and sensitive service delivery for children in all parts of the country.
Societal level
2. Assess the impact of public policies on children and their families. Governments should conduct social impact assessments which give particular attention to the potential impact of public policies on violence against children – especially discrimination, social and economic stress, and other risk factors relevant to family violence against children. The results should be used to prioritize economic and social safety nets which directly benefit families.
3. Increase economic and social safety nets for families. These should include family support centers which can provide assistance, including that provided in emergency situations; and they should help to develop supportive networks through providing quality child care facilities and pre-school enrichment programs; and through respite programs for families facing especially difficult circumstances; and also by giving attention to underlying factors such as education, housing, employment, and social policies and opportunities.
4. Implement evidence-based advocacy programs on violence prevention. At the society and community level, Governments should support strategies that aim to raise awareness of child rights, and promote change in social and cultural norms, gender equity/equality, and non-discrimination. Such programs should target Government sector workers, including police and justice system staff, educators, health workers, and the private sector, as well as parents and the general public. Governments have the obligation to initiate and support awareness campaigns that promote non-violent relationships and communication with children, as well as the positive involvement of men and boys in family life.
Legal measures
5. Develop an explicit framework of law and policy in which all forms of violence against children within the family are prohibited and rejected. Governments have the obligation to prohibit and eliminate all forms of violence against children in the home as well as in other settings. This includes all harmful traditional practices, sexual violence, and all corporal punishment, in accordance with the CRC and other human rights instruments (see the Committee’s General Comment on corporal punishment, No. 8, June 2006). Clear guidance and training should ensure that the law is implemented sensitively, in line with the best interests of the child. Legal reform should be linked with advocacy and awareness raising activities to promote positive, non-violent relationships with children.
6. Ensure that family courts and other parts of the justice system are sensitive to the needs of children and their families. Governments should ensure that child victims of family violence are not re victimized during the justice process, nor subjected to extended or drawn-out legal processes. Child victims should be treated in a caring and sensitive manner throughout the justice process, taking into account their personal situation and immediate needs, age, gender, disability and level of maturity, and fully respecting their physical, mental and moral integrity.
In particular, Governments should ensure that investigations, law enforcement, prosecution and judicial processes take into account the special needs of the child, bearing in mind the Guidelines on Justice for Child Victims and Witnesses of Crime (ECOSOC Resolution 2005/20). In this regard, the child should be accompanied by a trusted adult throughout his or her involvement in the justice process, if it is in his or her best interests; the child’s identity and privacy should be protected; confidentiality should be respected; and the child should not be subjected to excessive interviews, statements, hearings and unnecessary contact with the judicial process.
Consideration should be given to the use of pre-recorded video and other testimonial aids, such as the use of screens or closed circuit televisions, as well as to eliminating unnecessary contacts with the alleged perpetrator, or their defense. In particular, if compatible with the legal system and with due respect for the rights of the defense, professionals should ensure that the child victim of violence is protected from being unnecessarily cross-examined, that the general, public and the media are excluded from the courtroom during the child’s testimony, and that guardians ad item are available to protect the child’s legal interests. Speedy trials should also be ensured, unless delays are in the child’s best interests.
Strengthen coordinated responses
7. Provide pre-natal and post-natal care, and home visitation programs for optimizing early childhood development. These measures should be aimed at building on the strengths of the family and the community to promote healthy child development, and the early detection and support of families with problems. Governments should ensure that such programs include information on the importance of attachment and the physical, emotional, and cognitive development of infants and young children as well as attention to cultural factors.
8. Implement culturally-appropriate and gender-sensitive parenting programs and programs that support families to provide a violence-free home. Governments should ensure that important components are included in these programs such as: the importance of attachment bonds between parents and their children, and increasing understanding of the physical, psychological, sexual, and cognitive development of infants, children and young people in the context of social and cultural factors; expanding child-rearing and parenting skills for fathers and mothers, including promoting non-violent relationships and nonviolent forms of discipline, problem-solving skills, and the management of family conflicts; addressing gender stereotypes, and emphasizing the involvement of men and boys in family life. Governments must develop such programs in compliance with human rights norms, and also with reference to scientific evidence regarding the effectiveness thereof.
9. Protect especially vulnerable children in the family, and address gender issues. Governments should ensure a focus in all research, prevention, and response initiatives dealing with the family, on the situation and risks of children who are especially vulnerable to violence; for example, children with disabilities, refugee and other displaced children, children from minority groups, children without parental care, and children affected by HIV/AIDS. Special efforts are required to understand and respond to the differing risks which may be faced by girls and boys, and to pay attention to the concept of masculinity and gender stereotypes on violence experienced by girls and boys.
Build capacity
10. Build capacity among those who work with children and their families. Governments should ensure that professionals and non-professionals who work with and around children and their families receive adequate training and ongoing capacity building which includes basic information on children’s rights and the law, violence against children, its prevention, early detection and response, nonviolent conflict management, and children’s rights. In addition, workers must have a clear understanding of the physical, sexual, emotional and cognitive development of children and young people, and the links between gender and violence. Specific skills in communicating with and involving children in the decisions affecting them should also be promoted.
Build information systems
11. Implement civil registration universally, including the registration of births, deaths, and marriages. Governments should ensure free and accessible civil registration with free certification, and should remove penalties for late registration. The process must be advocated widely, and facilitated and implemented in cooperation with local government, hospitals, professional and traditional birth attendants, police, religious and community leaders, and other partners in order to ensure universal uptake.
12. Develop a national research agenda on family violence against children. Governments should put in place a set of national priorities for research that can supplement information systems with in-depth qualitative and quantitative research. Guided by international indicators and standards, Governments and their partners should strengthen information systems through improved surveillance of reported cases of family violence against children, and also through population based research which includes estimates of the prevalence of childhood victimization. Risk and protective factors related to violence can also be assessed by retrospective studies of childhood, and by interviewing young adults.
Data should be disaggregated to make visible the scale and scope of the experiences of girls and boys of different ages that are related to violence and overcoming it, their situations, and their risk and protective factors. Such efforts should include confidential interviews with the children themselves, with special attention given to vulnerable groups and their families, as well as to parents and other caregivers and adults, and appropriate ethical safeguards should be put in place. The information gathered should be shared widely to inform public policy and related action.
Kaliyah Salazar