Shocking figures

Four children between the ages of 0 and 14, some 1500 per year, are killed in Europe everyday. The highest number is in the Russian Federation, followed by Ukraine, Lithuania and Estonia. It is estimated that roughly one million children (in Europe and Central Asia) live in homes and orphanages, and that the majority of European children have experienced some form of physical punishment. At least 75,000 children are thought to be involved in the sex trade in Eastern Europe. These shocking figures on the situation in Europe are extracted from the UN Report on violence against children presented in New York and in various other cities in the world in recent days. The survey, coordinated by the independent expert Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, focused on violence perpetrated against childhood in the various contexts in which it is manifested: in families, orphanages, homes, places of work and communities. What emerges from the report is a situation in which violence against children is largely accepted in the world as something normal, and often socially approved. AN UNACCEPTABLE GAP. In Europe, explained FRANCESCA RACIOPPI , head of the Prevention of Violence and Trauma Programme of the World Health Organization in Europe, “the various cultures have different positions on what is and what is not acceptable. Over the last fifteen years the gap between Eastern and Western Europe has grown”. The child murder rate in the Commonwealth of Independent States is approximately 3 times higher than in the European Union. The only good news is that infant mortality as a result of maltreatment seems to be declining in most industrialized countries. HOME, A RATHER INSECURE PLACE. A UNICEF questionnaire in 2000 had revealed that 60% of children in Europe and Central Asia had suffered violence or aggression in their own home, at the hands of their parents or relatives. Drugs and alcohol are the most frequent factors of risk that trigger violence in parents. In the industrialized countries between 40 and 70% of the men who commit violence against their own wives/partners behave in the same way to their children. Studies conducted in 14 European countries estimate that sexual abuse inside and outside the family involves 20% of all girls and between 5 and 10% of boys. ABUSES IN INSTITUTIONS. Surveys conducted in Ireland indicate situations in which abuses on children in orphanages have continued unhindered for decades: one survey collected 3,000 denunciations, 60% of which from over-50-year-olds who, as children, had suffered abuse when they were in care. The UN Committee for Children’s Rights has expressed its concern for the lack of clear bans on corporal punishment in children’s homes in Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Kirghizistan and Moldavia. The UN Committee for Children’s Rights has reported the problem of maltreatment by police officers against children and youth in detention in Albania, France, Georgia, Romania, Switzerland, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Adolescents are often remanded in the same detention centres as adults, thus increasing the risk of abuse. In Germany there is proof of threats, blackmail, and even rape, committed against children. In Croatia, there are eyewitness reports of custodial personnel beating up children. ABUSES IN SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITIES . A report in Kazakistan reveals that 80% of children in boarding schools are treated “with cruelty”. In interviews with children in homes in Great Britain, 62 children out of the 71 interviewed reported cases of physical violence among children, ranging from knife attacks, kicks, punches, to acts of vandalism against their personal property, and threats. Some 34% of the children reported having been subjected at least once to acts of bullying in the last two months, especially girls. Boys in fact commit 85% of violent attacks. PREVENTION IS POSSIBLE. “It has been ascertained – said Francesca Racioppi – that the consequences of violence suffered during childhood endure for the whole of life, leading to inability to form stable relationships, risky sexual encounters and often premature death. The best way of stopping violence is to stop it before it actually occurs by investing in programmes of prevention”. The proposals and recommendations made to European countries include: promoting laws that prohibit any form of violence against children; ensuring that the placement of children in homes or in remand centres occurs only as a last resort; starting a system of data collection on children in homes throughout Europe; monitoring the conduct of personnel employed to look after children, ensuring they are properly paid and trained to handle tensions and conflicts; creating an effective procedure to permit children to denounce acts of violence and ensure they are aware of it.