UNITED NATIONS: In order to achieve the new global target of elimination of abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence and torture against children, a United Nations-backed partnership and fund were launched on Wednesday to help establish these goals as both a public priority and a collective responsibility.
End Violence Against Children – The Global Partnership will bring together United Nations, governments, foundations, civil society, academia, the private sector as well as young people in driving action towards achieving the targets to end violence by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“The Global Partnership to End Violence against Children is mobilising the world,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “There could be no more meaningful way to help realise the vision of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” he added. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported that in the past one year, as many as one billion children have experienced physical, sexual, or psychological violence around the world. Globally, every one in four children suffers from physical abuse. Nearly one in five girls are sexually abused at least once in her life, while every five minutes, a child dies as a result of violence.
“Violence against children is a problem shared by every society – so the solution must also be shared,” noted the Executive Director of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Anthony Lake, who currently serves as the founding co-chair of the Global Partnership Board. “When we protect children from violence we not only prevent individual tragedies and support children’s development and growth. In doing so, we also support the strength and stability of their societies,” he added.
In coordination with the United Kingdom (UK), a multi-donor trust fund is also being established to support the Global Partnership. The UK Government is at present making a contribution of £40 million to catalyse the Fund in collaboration with the WePROTECT Global Alliance, an initiative created by the Government in 2014, dedicated to ending the online sexual exploitation of children through national and global action. The UK funding will be dispersed over the next four years and will focus on ending online child sexual exploitation.
