La Strada Documentation Center

You Feel Like You're Nothing. The UN Study on Violence against Children

Document number
1737
Date
2008
Title
You Feel Like You're Nothing. The UN Study on Violence against Children
Author/publisher
Serena Decordova, Rachel Hodgkin, Louise King, Sharon Rustemier, National Society For The Prevention Of Cruelty To Children, Children's Rights Alliance For England
Availability
View/save PDF version of this document
Document type(s)
Research/Study/Analysis,
Keywords
Physical violence, Corporal punishment, Sexual violence, Emotional violence, Child abduction, Child trafficking,
Summary
In 2002, the then United Nations Secretary-General appointed Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro as independent expert to provide a global picture of violence against children and to propose recommendations for the prevention of violence. Many member states, including the UK Government, provided detailed information to the study, as did expert bodies. For the first time, a global study on children involved children themselves. Nine regional consultations were held,where children had the opportunity to express their views to their own government ministers and parliamentarians, as well as those preparing the study. In May 2006, some of these children met in New York to consolidate recommendations for further action.This report has been prepared in parallel with the UN study and, like the study, looks at the different settings in which violence to children occurs – the home, alternative forms of care, schools, public spaces and the criminal justice system. The last section focuses on forms of violence perpetrated by minority cultural groups through “traditional practices prejudicial to the health of children”, as stated by the Convention on the Rights of the Child.The views and experiences of particular groups of children who are more vulnerable to violence because of age, race, disability, sexual orientation and so forth, are included throughout the document rather than in separate sections.aims to provide sufficient information about prevalence and analysis of various forms of violence suffered by children in particular settings to give a snapshot of the scale of the problem. We have tried to be as up-to-date and accurate as possible, but inevitably there are gaps and contradictions, and even, very occasionally, a superabundance of information which has had to be pared down. The report can be downloaded from: http://www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform/publications/Downloads/youfeellike_wdf58910.pdf
Related documents