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UNICEF / VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN ADVANCER
STORY: UNICEF / VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN ADVANCER
TRT: 2.27
SOURCE: UNIFEED – UNTV / UNICEF / UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: EMBARGOED UNTIL 4 SEPTEMBER, 15:15 GMT
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/ NATS
DATELINE: 3 SEPTEMBER 2014, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
3 SEPTEMBER 2014, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior UNICEF headquarters
2. Med shot, Susan Bissell
3. Close up, Bissell‘s hands typing
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Susan Bissell, Chief of Child Protection, Programme Division:
“For the first time a UN agency is putting out a truly global report essentially saying that we have data to show that if there is one common aspect of human society right now, it is the fact that tremendous violence is committed against children.”
5. Close up, Bissell‘s hands holding mouse
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Susan Bissell, Chief of Child Protection, Programme Division:
“It is important that we don’t simply go away with the message that violence is everywhere, we live in a horrific world; but in fact to say, there are tried, true, measured, evaluated solutions.”
FILE - 12 NOVEMBER 2013, KENYA
7. Med shot, child wearing child abuse hotline t-shirt
8. Wide shot, counsellors meeting family outside their home
3 SEPTEMBER 2014, NEW YORK CITY
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Susan Bissell, Chief of Child Protection, Programme Division:
“Legal and policy frameworks need to be in place in every country to protect children from violence, for prevention purposes and response purposes, and it’s only when we have those frameworks we really, truly can hold governments accountable.”
RECENT, SANTIAGO, CHILE
10. Med shot, policemen talking to young man
3 SEPTEMBER 2014, NEW YORK CITY
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Susan Bissell, Chief of Child Protection, Programme Division:
“Social change, attitudes towards boys and girls and then gender attitudes take a long time to change, but we can see more rapid change than ever before, not least with the advent of social media and the use of more innovative and creative approaches.”
12. Close up, copies of the Convention on the Rights of the Child
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Susan Bissell, Chief of Child Protection, Programme Division:
“Changing attitudes with respect to violence against children requires, you know, so many things but it starts with knowing, with having knowledge. And this is one of the things we are hoping to do with both of these reports, the data and the strategies for action. A lot of people don’t even know this is happening. So if we put a report out in the public domain, it’s a little bit like saying, now you know, you have to do something.”
UNHCR - FILE 17 FEBRUARY 2014, ARSAL, LEBANON
14. Various shots, Syrian refugee children
3 SEPTEMBER 2014, NEW YORK CITY
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Susan Bissell, Chief of Child Protection, Programme Division:
“The violence that is addressed in the report, in both the companion and the statistical report actually are simply magnified in conflict settings, or magnified where there is economic deprivation or where climate change is having a huge impact for example on access to livelihood. So, what we sort of say is that in a conflict setting the violence that plays out in regular settings is simply amplified, taken to a whole other level.”
RECENT, SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR
16. Various shots, vocational training project youths playing drums
Ahead of the release of two UNICEF landmark reports on violence against children, UNICEF’s Chief of Child Protection, Susan Bissell, said data shows that “if there is one common aspect of human society right now, it is the fact that tremendous violence is committed against children.”
The report “Hidden in plain sight: A statistical analysis of violence against children” is the largest-ever compilation of data on the subject of violence against children, while “Strategies for Preventing and Responding to Violence against Children” presents a series of successful interventions to prevent and respond to violence against children.
Bissell said it was “important that we don’t simply go away with the message that violence is everywhere, we live in a horrific world; but in fact to say, there are tried, true, measured, evaluated solutions.”
“Hidden in Plain Sight” draws on data from 190 countries, documenting violence in places where children should be safe: their communities, schools and homes. It details the lasting, often inter-generational effects of violence, finding that exposed children are more likely to become unemployed, live in poverty and be violent towards others.
Bissell highlighted the importance of data collection and said “legal and policy frameworks need to be in place in every country to protect children from violence, for prevention purposes and response purposes, and it’s only when we have those frameworks we really, truly can hold governments accountable.”
She pointed out that “social change, attitudes towards boys and girls and then gender attitudes take a long time to change” and noted the importance of “knowledge” to bring about those changes.
She “a lot of people don’t even know this is happening. So if we put a report out in the public domain, it’s a little bit like saying, now you know, you have to do something.”
Bissell said that even though the reports do not deal specifically about armed conflict, “in a conflict setting the violence that plays out in regular settings is simply amplified, taken to a whole other level.”
Among other findings, “Hidden in Plain Sight” shows that around 120 million girls under the age of 20 worldwide (about 1 in 10) have experienced forced intercourse or other forced sexual acts.
One fifth of homicide victims globally are children and adolescents under the age of 20, resulting in about 95,000 deaths in 2012, and slightly more than 1 in 3 students between the ages of 13 and 15 worldwide are regularly bullied in school.
UNICEF points to six strategies to enable society as a whole, from families to governments, to prevent and reduce violence against children. They include supporting parents and equipping children with life skills; changing attitudes; strengthening judicial, criminal and social systems and services; and generating evidence and awareness about violence and its human and socio-economic costs, in order to change attitudes and norms.
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