Prevention and awareness raising about the risks [of sexual abuse and exploitation] should start at an early age but subjects should be tailored to specific age groups.
Hungarian children participating at the monitoring of the “Lanzarote Convention”, 2018
The right to a life free from violence
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) prohibits “all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse” against children (Article 19). Violence against children constitutes a violation of the rights of the child, compromises children’s social development and affects the enjoyment of their other rights. Violence often has devastating short- and long-term mental and physical health consequences, at times persisting across generations.
Violence against children remains widespread and falls into four general categories:
Emotional Abuse: This can take the form of verbal abuse, mental abuse and psychological maltreatment. Emotional abuse includes acts or failures to act by parents or caretakers, which cause or could cause serious behavioural, cognitive, emotional or mental disorders.
Neglect:Failure to provide for the child’s basic needs. Neglect may be physical, educational or psychological. Physical neglect includes failure to provide such things as adequate food or clothing, appropriate medical care, proper supervision or protection from the elements. It may include abandonment. Educational neglect includes failing to provide appropriate schooling or to cater for special educational needs, and allowing excessive truancies. Psychological neglect includes an absence of love and emotional support and failure to protect the child from abuse, including allowing him or her to use drugs or alcohol.
Physical violence: Inflicting physical injury on a child includes burning, hitting, punching, shaking, kicking, beating or otherwise harming a child. Such injuries, fatal or non-fatal, constitute violence, whether or not the adult intended to cause harm; for example, an injury may result from over-discipline or acts of physical punishment.
Sexual violence: Inappropriate sexual behaviour with a child including the inducement or coercion of a child to engage in any unlawful or psychologically harmful sexual activity, sexual exploitation and use of children in audio or visual images of child sexual abuse. Below the legal age of consent, set by
legislation, children are considered to be incapable of consenting to sexual acts. Sexual violence is an abuse of power over a child and a violation of a child’s right to normal, healthy, trusting relationships.
Violence may be hidden and hard to detect when committed by people who are part of children’s everyday lives, and in places which should be havens for children, such as at school, at home, or in residential institutions. The effects of violence on children are devastating: it undermines their well-being and their ability to learn and socialise normally; it is likely to leave physical and emotional scars that may provoke long-term trauma. Many children are afraid to speak out against the offenders who are known to them, especially in cases of sexual abuse. This silence places a burden of responsibility on all those who work with children of being able to recognise signs of abuse and to report them in all instances.
No acts of violence against children are justifiable; all violence against children is preventable. Education, training and capacity building are needed to raise awareness and promote a culture of non-violence. Clear policies and effective reporting mechanisms are necessary, as is advocacy to put non-violence on the political agenda.
Corporal punishment
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child defines corporal or physical punishment as any punishment in which physical force is used and intended to cause some degree of pain or discomfort, however light. Most involves hitting (“smacking”, “slapping”, “spanking”) children, with the hand or with an implement – a whip, stick, belt, shoe, wooden spoon, etc.”. In the view of the Committee, corporal punishment is invariably degrading. There are other non-physical forms of punishment that are also cruel and degrading and thus incompatible with the CRC. These include, for example, punishment which belittles, humiliates, denigrates, scapegoats, threatens, scares or ridicules the child.1
Corporal punishment of children, be it at home, in alternative care, at school or within the justice system, is considered a violation of children’s right to protection against violence (Article 17of the European Social Charter) and freedom from torture or degrading and inhuman treatment (Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights).
Following a call for a Europe-wide ban on corporal punishment by the Parliamentary Assembly, 32 Council of Europe member states have formally banned corporal punishment in all settings, including the home2. However, despite this positive development, corporal punishment remains lawful or unpunished in many countries and is still perceived as an acceptable form of ‘discipline’. Putting an end to corporal punishment in the home requires a cultural shift and change of attitude among parents, leading to positive, non-violent methods of bringing up children.
Is corporal punishment in all settings banned in your country?
Domestic violence
Domestic violence is physical, sexual, psychological or economic violence that occurs within the family or domestic unit or between former or current spouses or partners. Most victims of domestic violence are women, but many of these women have children who can also fall victim to violence or witness the violence directed at their mothers.
Violence in schools – peer violence
It is estimated that 246 million children and adolescents experience school violence and bullying in some form every year. Bullying in schools may take many forms, and it may be physical or psychological. Children who are perceived to be ‘different’ – for example, more or less academically able, larger or smaller, with a skin colour or accent differing from the majority – often find themselves the target of sarcastic humour, rumours, name-calling, intimidation and social exclusion, as well as suffering physical attacks on their person or belongings. For children who are the victims of such violence,
school becomes a place of terror, not a place to learn.
There is a need for public awareness and zero tolerance of violence in schools. School officials, teachers and parents need to be able to detect symptoms of violence and must act promptly against it. Every school needs consistent prevention policies to eliminate violence, and simple, confidential ways for children to lodge complaints. Involving children in awareness raising and peer support are effective means to combating violence in schools. The Council of Europe Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education (EDC/HRE)assigns education an important role in combating violence, particularly in schools, such as bullying and harassment, whether physical, psychological or, increasingly commonly, through the Internet (‘cyberbullying’).
Exposure to harmful content
The Internet and social media can expose young people to a wide range of risks. Whether intentional or unintentional, exposure to inappropriate sexual or violent material or content otherwise considered harmful to the child’s development constitutes a form of violence. Harmful content covers a broad range of material such as child sexual abuse material (‘child pornography’), violent video games or websites that encourage hate speech, but it is not necessarily illegal. Exposing a child to content that is harmful amounts to child maltreatment.
Sexual violence
‘Sexual violence’ is an umbrella term used to cover all forms of sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children. It is estimated that about one in five children are victims of some form of sexual violence in Europe and that, in about 80% of cases, the offender is known to the child. Sexual violence against children can take many different forms, such as sexual abuse within the family or circle of trust, sexual exploitation through prostitution or sexual abuse materials, sexual violence facilitated by the Internet, and sexual assault by peers.
Child sexual abuse: this refers to sexual activities of an adult with a child. Even if a child has reached the legal age of consent established in national laws, it is still sexual abuse if the adult uses coercion, force or threats, or if the adult abuses a position of trust, authority or influence, or takes advantage of an especially vulnerable child.
Child prostitution – Sexual exploitation through prostitution: this is any form of child sexual exploitation whereby a child is recruited, coerced or caused to participate in prostitution in exchange for (the promise of) money or any other form of remuneration or benefit.
Child pornography – Child sexual abuse material: this refers to any material that depicts a child engaged in real or simulated sexually-explicit conduct, or any depiction of a child’s sexual organs for primarily sexual purposes. The criminal offence can be committed by producing such material, offering it or making it available, distributing or transmitting it, procuring it for oneself or for another person, possessing it and knowingly obtaining access to it.
Solicitation of children for sexual purposes – Online grooming: this refers to the intentional act of an adult proposing to meet a child who has not reached the age of sexual majority for the purpose of sexually abusing or exploiting him/her. The “Lanzarote Convention” refers specifically to such proposals being made through information and communication technologies, and to situations where the offender has taken some concrete steps to meet with the child in person. Nevertheless, the committee mandated to interpret the Convention has recommended that states should also consider extending criminalisation to cases when the sexual abuse is committed exclusively online.
People working in contact with children should be screened and trained, and the reporting of any suspicion of sexual exploitation or sexual abuse should be encouraged. Children should learn at school about the risks of sexual abuse, how to protect themselves and where to seek help (including telephone helplines). Parents, teachers, social workers and policy makers all have a role in ensuring that children are protected from sexual abuse.
Is corporal punishment in all settings banned in your country?