Decade of action to end violence against children

The United Nations Decade of Action asks communities around the world to work together to accelerate progress towards the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development . Achieving the 2030 Agenda's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 will help reduce the risk of violence in children's lives and provide effective responses for child victims. But we must also recognize that if we do not adequately address the SDG targets related to violence against children, progress across the whole 2030 Agenda will be hindered. 

During its formulation, children themselves called for the 2030 Agenda to explicitly incorporate freedom from violence. They highlighted that violence cuts across many development goals but in addition, it needed to be envisioned as a standalone priority.In including SDG target 16.2 (“end abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence and torture against children”), the 2030 Agenda for the first time, placed the dignity of children and their right to live free from violence and from fear as a priority on the international development agenda. The 2030 Agenda and the SDGs are a unique opportunity for the realization of the right of every child to live free from fear and violence as enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The launch of the Decade of Action in 2020 took place as the United Nations celebrated its 75th Anniversary under the theme of renewing multilateralism, but also as the world faces grave new challenges, including climate change, growing inequality and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The international community must ensure that children are at the front and center of the Decade of Action and are mobilized as active participants in accelerating action.  

Achieving the SDGs, especially those related to education and health, gender equality and violence against women, child labor, poverty eradication, access to justice, and accountable and inclusive institutions, will help reduce the risk of violence in children's lives and provide effective responses for child victims. The adoption of SDG target 16.2 by the United Nations was a historic breakthrough: the international community must now act to transform this momentum into an unstoppable movement to end all forms of violence against children. Here you will find more information about violence against children in the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs, including key issues, reports and links to relevant sites.

 

 

Accelerating implementation of SDG Target 16.2 and other related SDGs

The SRSG´s office prepared a  briefing note to support United Nations Member States as they prepare their Voluntary National Review (VNR), to highlight the close linkages between the SDGs and ending violence against children. It encourages Member States to use their VNR to report on promising practices and initiatives showing that violence against children is preventable when there is political will and commitment. 

An important purpose of the VNR process is to engage the whole of society in reviewing progress towards reaching the SDG targets. Children should be active participants, and their voices must be reflected both in the process and outcome of the VNR. Children's protection, education, health and other aspects of their well-being should be an integral part of every VNR report, paying close attention to ensuring no child is left behind, especially the most vulnerable.

 

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A Safer World for Children with Sustainable Development Goals

We all have a role to play in achieving the SDGS by 2030.The SRSG´s office prepared a child-friendly paper as part of her strong engagement with children aiming to emphasize their role of children as agents of change and their capacity to be equal partners in realizing their right to live free from violence, particularly in the framework of the 2030 Agenda. This version provides important information for children to better understand how violence against children is a cross-cutting theme within the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and how children can contribute to its implementation becoming an integral part of all decision-making processes addressing violence against children.

 

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Investing in Children: An Accelerator for the Sustainable Development Goals | 2023 

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children (SRSGVAC) reached out to all 38 Member States – and one regional organization – that presented Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) at the 2023 High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) to offer support to their reporting processes. This was followed by briefings, where appropriate, to the United Nations Resident Coordinators and Country Teams, as well as UN regional offices. The SRSG-VAC encouraged the UN system to support a participatory national VNR process and follow-up, using the One UN approach, in line with the Call to Action for Human Rights and Our Common Agenda. She also stressed the interlinkages across the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, emphasizing the importance of increased investment in children, and outlined how such investment could be highlighted in the VNR process, the periodic reports to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework.

The SRSG-VAC also participated in regional and national policy dialogues, jointly hosted activities at the high-level moments of the HLPF and the General Assembly, and joined VNR preparation processes in addition to her country visits. The Office of the SRSG-VAC undertook a thorough reading of the 2023 VNRs, as well as live presentations during the 2023 HLPF, using a child- and gender-sensitive protection lens.

 This brief explores how investment in a holistic approach to the SDGs can contribute to the prevention of – and response to – violence against children, illustrated with examples from the 2023 VNRs. These examples are not exhaustive, but they highlight promising practices with the aim of encouraging Member States to enhance overall investment in children and their well-being. The brief also shares other examples that have impressed the SRSG-VAC during her engagements with various stakeholders.

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Seeing the Sustainable Development Goals and Voluntary National Reviews through a Child Protection Lens | 2022 

The 2030 Agenda provides a crucial framework for the realization of the rights of children by building an inclusive, just, enabling, healthy and safe environment. Therefore, any review of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda needs an integrated and child-rights-based approach that identifies the links, intersections, and cross-cutting elements among the SDGs.

The 2022 High-level Political Forum (HLPF) focused on ‘Building back better from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) while advancing the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.’

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children (SRSG-VAC) reached out to all 44 Member States presenting VNRs at the 2022 HLPF to offer support to their national reporting processes. During this engagement, the SRSG was greatly encouraged by the commitment expressed by Member States to the protection and well-being of children. 

In her engagement with Member States in the lead-up to the HLPF, the SRSG focused in particular on how their 2022 VNRs could report on progress towards ending violence against children and its drivers, and how this progress helps to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. 

The report reviews the 2022 VNRs to illustrate how addressing drivers can mitigate the impacts of violence against children. These examples are not exhaustive, but they highlight promising practices and aim to encourage others to take action to address similar challenges.

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Reflections on reporting in the 2021 Voluntary National Reviews

Following the preparation and wide dissemination of the first briefing note prepared by the SRSG, the office reviewed the VNRs presented at the High-level Political Forum in 2021.

The 2021 HLPF focused on a set of SDGs directly related to protecting children from violence, as well as its drivers. These included the goals on poverty, hunger, health and well-being, decent work (including ending child labour), inequality, and climate action. 

The HLPF also reviewed SDG16 and its specific target (16.2) to end all forms of violence against children.

In preparation for the HLPF, Special representative Maalla M'jid met with almost all  Member States, presenting a VNR in 2021 to explore how their national process could be child-sensitive and child-inclusive. Where relevant, I also engaged with the United Nations country team and Resident Coordinator to ensure child rights were reflected in their support to the national VNR process. In addition, she participated in several preparatory national policy dialogues and met with representatives of civil society, and children and young people.  

The office prepared an additional document that provides an overview of the VNRs presented as well as important reflections on the reports, including examples illustrating how Member States are incorporating ending violence against children into their national development process.

We hope all Member States will find this document helpful, particularly those which will be preparing Voluntary National Reviews in 2022 and start working on ways to share progress made towards ending all forms of violence against children.  

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Reflections on reporting in the 2020 Voluntary National Reviews

In the previous year, the office reviewed the VNRs presented at the High-level Political Forum in 2020, it was encouraging to see that Member States increasingly recognize that ending violence against children is critical to making progress across the SDGs.

To further support Member States in the preparation of their upcoming VNR reports, the office of the SRSG prepared an additional  document that provides an overview of the VNRs presented as well as important reflections on the reports, including examples illustrating how Member States are incorporating ending violence against children into their national development process.

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VNR LAB: HLPF 2021 | Investing in children: developing a child-sensitive SDG voluntary national review for an inclusive and sustainable recovery

During the last year, the world has experienced unprecedented challenges from COVID-19 that have the potential to reverse global gains towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Children's rights to protection, health, good nutrition, and education have been compromised - diminishing their life chances and ability to realize their potential. COVID-19 has exposed and exacerbated existing inequalities and fragilities. It has changed the lives of everyone around the world, putting an enormous pressure on national systems. COVID-19 is both a global health and humanitarian crisis, and risks becoming a broader child rights' crisis.

The Lab will be an opportunity to hear how Governments have made their VNR process child-sensitive, showing how they have tried to ensure children were prioritized in the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the challenges they have faced and how they are planning to finance, preserve and enhance services for children in the immediate recovery phase and beyond. It also aims at presenting evidence-based perspectives on how public spending on strengthened social services for children is a sound long-term investment that is the foundation for a sustainable recovery from the pandemic and essential for accelerated progress towards reaching the SDGs and implementing the 2030 Agenda.

 

 

VNR LAB: HLPF 2020 | Developing a child-sensitive and child-inclusive SDG Voluntary National Review

Governments across all regions are using the SDG targets related to children to spur accelerated action towards ending poverty, ensuring healthy lives, increasing access to quality education, achieving gender equality, promoting child participation, and eliminating all forms of violence. 

In July 2020, the Office of the Special Representative and UNICEF co-organized a VNR Lab at the High-level Political Forum to encourage Governments to report on the SDG targets related to children in their VNRs and share examples of actions taken.

The Lab highlighted how inclusive and participatory VNR processes can help ensure that children's well-being and protection is placed at the center of national development planning and accelerate progress towards reaching the SDGs.

The Lab also drew attention to the need to maintain national budgets for the health, education and protection of children from violence, even in the face of the global economic crisis created by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Concept note  | Summary of the VNR Lab

 

Keeping the Promise: Ending Violence against Children by 2030 

"Four years after the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals and 30 years after the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, despite some progress, violence against children remains hidden and undermines the achievement of the SDGs and the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda. We need to do more, to do it better and to do it faster to ensure that no child is left behind. " SRSG Najat Maalla M'jid said as she launched   Keeping the promise: ending violence against children by 2030  during the High -level Political Forum in 2019.

The report highlights that over 1 billion children around the world - half of the world's children - endure some form of violence; three in every four children under the age of 5 experience aggressive discipline at the hands of caregivers; and almost one-third of students have been bullied by their peers at least once in the past month.
 
The report gathers expert analysis from stakeholders who are committed to keeping the promise enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history: for every child to have a life free from violence.

SRSG celebrates the historic global commitment to end violence against children

On Friday, 25 September 2015, a global sustainable development agenda was unanimously adopted by the Member States of the United Nations. The 2030 Agenda includes for the first time a specific target (16.2) to end all forms of violence against children, and ending the abuse , neglect and exploitation of children is mainstreamed across several other violence-related targets.

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Key reports

The road to dignity by 2030: ending poverty, transforming all lives and protecting the planet. Synthesis report of the Secretary-General on the post-2015 sustainable development agenda ( A / 69/700 )   

The Sustainable Development Goals Report  2019  2020 2021 2022

Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals Report of the Secretary-General - 2022

Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals Report of the Secretary-General - 2021

Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals Report of the Secretary-General - 2020

Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals Report of the Secretary-General - 2019 Special Edition

Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals Report of the Secretary-General - 2019 Session

Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals Report of the Secretary-General - 2018 Session

Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals Report of the Secretary-General - 2017 Session

Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals Report of the Secretary-General - 2016 Session

Report of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators. The three global indicators for target 16.2 are below and can be found on page 57 of the report:

- 16.2.1 Proportion of children aged 1-17 years who experienced any physical punishment and/or psychological aggression by caregivers in the past month Donwload

-16.2.2 Number of victims of human trafficking per 100,000 population, by sex, age and form of exploitation

-16.2.3 Proportion of young women and men aged 18-29 years who experienced sexual violence by age 18

SRSG report Why Children's Protection from Violence should be at the Heart of the Post-2015 Development Agenda - A Review of Consultations with Children on the Post-2015 Development Agenda Download

SRSG Viewpoints

The 2030 Agenda-implementation, follow up and review

Global Agenda 2030 - Building a world that is safer for children

Why ending violence against children is essential to sustainable development

Why it is crucial to place the protection of children from violence at the center of the global sustainable development agenda

Ending all forms of violence against children by 2030 - Council of Europe Contribution to the 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals

SDGs the world we want  child-friendly publication