Other forms of violence

The Inter-American Children’s Institute is committed to disseminate among the OAS Member States the contents and recommendations of the Study of Violence Against Children of the United Nations, that was presented by the Independent Expert, specifically to the Committee of Legal and Political Affairs on October 13, 2006.

The different types of violence against children and adolescents are a violation to their human rights that severely damaged their health and their physical and psychological development. Article 19 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child states that the violence is understood as:

“(…) all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse” and can be defined as “the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against a child, by an individual or group, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in actual or potential harm to the child’s health, survival, development or dignity ” (1)

Consideration should also be given to Article 37 of the Convention, which stipulates that “No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment (...)"

Most of the violence against children and adolescents remains hidden in the eyes of the law, of  justice authorities and of the public in general, due to factors such as fear, lack of safe and reliable ways to channel respective complaints and social acceptance of violence by the aggressors, and especially the victims, who live it as something inevitable or normal. The physical, sexual or psychological violence finds justification in a culture that legitimizes and houses violent behavior patterns by adults with children at home, in schools or in the community.

In the Study of Violence Against Children made by UN it has highlighted the deep concern of various social players and of the children and adolescents themselves on the high prevalence of corporal punishment in the family and for its insistent legality in various States, in schools and other institutions.

A big step in the implementation of the recommendations of this Study had been their adoption adopted by the national delegations that participated at the Sub-regional Conference "Culture of Peace and Prevention of Youth Violence in Mexico, Central-America and the Dominican Republic" held in Costa Rica in November 2007.

The declaration of this Sub-regional Conference affirmed that children, adolescents and youth represent a segment of the population highly vulnerable to violence, it stated that prevention should be the central axis of the interventions in the area of youth violence and emphasized the responsibility of the States as guarantors in the assistance and recovery of children and adolescents who are victims. In this instance it was called for the appointment of a Special Representative of the OAS Secretary General to follow-up of youth violence, the monitoring of the policies for the prevention of violence formulated in the countries, the exchange of experiences and best practices between countries, the coordination of joint actions and follow-up in Latin-America and the Caribbean of the Study of Violence Against Children.

In order to contribute to the follow-up of the recommendations of the Study, the Inter-American Children’s Institute presented the Working Group on Violence of the Global Movement for Children (GMfC), Chapter Latin America and the Caribbean the Working Program and the Proposal for the Follow-up of the Recommendations of the Violence Study against Children of UN.

To visit the mentioned documents:

(1) - Definition used in the UN Violence Study,  E. G. Krug et al. (eds.), World Report on Violence and Health (Geneva, World Health Organization, 2002), p. 5.

 

 

 

2008 - Inter-American Children's Institute