Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

Sustainable Development Goal 3 addresses violence against children.

Health

Violence impedes children’s physical and mental health and development. Exposure to violence is often traumatic, and can provoke toxic responses to stress that cause both immediate and long-term physiological and psychological damage. Lack of access to health care services, including mental health and sexual and reproductive health, has a direct impact on children’s wellbeing. In addition, health systems and their personnel play a key role in the detection, prevention, and response to violence against children.

Education and Early Childhood Development

Schools can be the setting for forms of violence such as bullying, corporal punishment and sexual exploitation and abuse that must be addressed directly. But schools can also be an early detection mechanism for violence and neglect that happens in a child’s home or their community. Children exposed to violence and other adversities at home or at school are more likely to drop out of education, compromising their chances of becoming productive citizens. Realizing the right of all children to a safe,6 inclusive7 and quality education plays a foundational role in creating more productive, equal and inclusive societies .

Experiencing toxic stress and violence in early childhood can alter the development of the brain structure and function, such as language acquisition and cognitive functioning, which can result in deficits in social and emotional competency. Later in life, these can decrease economic productivity, increase the likelihood of intergenerational poverty, and perpetuate violence in personal relationships.

Decent work

Decent work for all, including women, young people and migrant workers, promotes sustainable economic growth and enables families and caregivers to provide for the health, development and protection of their children. In stark contrast, child labour is an egregious form of violence that is contrary to the very concept of decent work and must be ended. It harms the health, development and education of children and perpetuates the vicious cycle of poverty and deprivation.