World Health Organization Says Violence Against Children Can And Must Be Prevented

World Health Organization Says Violence Against Children Can And Must Be Prevented

October 17, 2006

    GENEVA, Oct. 17 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- The World Health
Organization (WHO) is today issuing a practical new guide to
help countries prevent violence against children.  Children
are the victims of startling levels of violence, often at
the hands of those who should be protecting them.  This new
guide, published by WHO and the International Society for
Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN),
demonstrates that violence against children can and must be
prevented.

    (Logo: 
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040610/CNTH001LOGO )

    According to the recently released UN
Secretary-General's Study on Violence Against Children,
much of the violence endured by children aged 0-14 years
occurs in the home at the hands of parents, caregivers, and
family members.  The consequences of this violence hinder
children's health and development and can last well into
adulthood, negatively affecting health and increasing the
risks of further victimization and becoming a perpetrator
of violence. 

    Preventing child maltreatment: a guide to taking action
and generating evidence is intended to assist countries to
design and deliver programmes for the prevention of child
maltreatment by parents and caregivers. The guide is a
practical tool that will help governments implement the
recommendations of the UN Study on Violence Against
Children. 

    Country reports in the UN Study show that children
under 10 years of age are at significantly greater risk
than older children of severe violence perpetrated by
family members and people closely associated with the
family. The Study also reports WHO estimates that in
children under 18 years of age the worldwide prevalence of
sexual violence involving forced intercourse and touch is
73 million for boys and 150 million for girls. 

    Research shows that child maltreatment can be
prevented.  The need to increase investment in prevention
is urgent and global.  Promising strategies include
reducing unintended pregnancies; improving access to
high-quality pre- and post-natal care; reducing harmful
levels of alcohol and illicit drug use during pregnancy and
by new parents; providing home visitation services by nurses
and social workers to families at risk of maltreatment, and
training parents on child development, non-violent
discipline and problem-solving skills.  The UN Study and
the guide make it clear that responsibility for
implementing such strategies lies with governments, and
should involve other stakeholders, including
non-governmental organizations (NGOs), research councils
and the international community. 

    "For too long now the response to child
maltreatment has been dominated by systems for reacting to
cases once maltreatment has already started.  The
scientific evidence for preventing physical, sexual and
psychological abuse from occurring in the first place is
already quite strong, and the time is ripe for a paradigm
shift from reaction to prevention," said Dr Anders
Nordstrom, WHO Acting Director General.

    The new WHO-ISPCAN guide provides technical advice for
professionals working in governments, research institutes
and NGOs on how to measure the extent of child maltreatment
and its consequences and how to design, implement and
evaluate prevention programmes.  The guide also notes that
the strong relationships between child maltreatment,
economic inequality and poverty mean that reducing
inequality and poverty are likely to make a significant
contribution to preventing child maltreatment. 

    "We welcome the WHO-ISPCAN guide on Preventing
Child Maltreatment," said Ann M. Veneman, Executive
Director of UNICEF.  "This is an important new tool
for addressing violence against children."

    A unique aspect of Preventing child maltreatment is its
recognition that child maltreatment and other childhood
adversities are associated with a broad range of
risk-taking behaviours in later life, including smoking,
high-risk sexual behaviours, unintended pregnancy and
harmful alcohol and drug use. 

    According to a recent WHO study, the lifetime impacts
of child sexual abuse account for approximately six percent
of cases of depression; six percent of alcohol and or drug
abuse/dependence; eight percent of suicide attempts; 10
percent of panic disorders, and 27 percent of post
traumatic stress disorders. Such risk factors and
behaviours can lead to some of the principal causes of
death, disease and disability. 

    "What happens to people in childhood still has a
major effect thirty, forty and even fifty years later.  One
person might be driven to chronic depression, or to
alcoholism, another to suicide, another to drug use leading
to chronic hepatitis.  But these linkages are concealed by
time, shame, secrecy, and by social taboos against
discussing these things," said Dr Vincent Felitti,
Chief of Preventive Medicine at the Kaiser Permanent
Medical Care Program in the USA, and a contributor to the
guide.  "These concealed life-long consequences mean
that governments everywhere are already spending a
substantial portion of their health budgets treating the
consequences of maltreatment, resources that would be far
more effectively spent on prevention". 

    "We have enough information to take preventive
action. We cannot delay. Children cannot wait.  By
following the recommendations contained in this guide
countries can immediately start to implement child
maltreatment prevention programmes while building the
evidence base further," said Professor Barbara Bonner,
President of ISPCAN. 
 
    For more information, please contact:

     Laura Sminkey, 
     Advocacy and Communications, 
     Department of Injuries and Violence Prevention, WHO:
Geneva
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail] 

    Relevant links 

    WHO, Department of Injuries and Violence Prevention,
Prevention of Violence: 
    
http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/en/

    International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and
Neglect:
      http://www.ispcan.org/ 

    The Guide can be found at:  
    
http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2006/9241594365_eng.pdf


SOURCE  World Health Organization