Violence against Children

Violence affects children across the globe and in many different settings, including in the home, at school, and in penal and non-penal institutions.

Children frequently experience violence at the hands of police and other law enforcement officials.  Children are often detained by police without sufficient cause and then subject to brutal interrogations in order to elicit confessions or information.  In juvenile and criminal correctional institutions, children are frequently mistreated and abused, enduring severe corporal punishment, torture, forced labor, denial of food, isolation, restraints, sexual assaults, and harassment.  In many instances, children are detained with adults, leaving them at increased risk of physical and sexual abuse.

Street children are especially easy targets.  They may be beaten by police who extort money from them or forced to provide sex to avoid arrest or be released from police custody.  Seen as vagrants or criminals, street children have been tortured, mutilated, and subjected to death threats and extrajudicial execution.

In schools—places that are meant to nurture the development of children—violence may be a regular part of a child’s experience. In many countries, corporal punishment is still permitted as part of school “discipline.” Children are subjected to caning, slapping, and whipping that result in bruises, cuts, and humiliation and in some cases serious injury or death. Girls are at particular risk of sexual violence from both teachers and male students, and may be fondled, verbally degraded, assaulted, and raped. Students may also be targeted because of their gender, race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, caste, sexual orientation, social group, or other status.

Child laborers are often beaten for working too slowly, making mistakes, arriving to work late, appearing tired, or simply as a means of intimidation. Those who attempt to escape such abuse and seek protection from the police may be returned directly to their employers.

Children who have been orphaned or abandoned may be placed in institutions where they are at risk of shocking and sometimes deadly levels of abuse and neglect.  Human Rights Watch has documented cases of children who have been beaten, sexually abused, restrained in cloth sacks or tethered to furniture, and subjected to degrading treatment by staff in such institutions. In some facilities, mortality rates have been staggering.

In armed conflict situations, children by the thousands are killed, maimed, raped, and tortured every year.  Children recruited as soldiers risk injury, disability, and death in combat; they also run the risk of physical and sexual abuse by their fellow soldiers and commanders.  Children who have fled war zones are vulnerable to physical abuse, sexual violence, and cross-border attacks.

Recognizing the pervasiveness of violence against children, UN secretary-general Kofi Annan appointed an independent expert in 2003 to conduct a worldwide study on the issue.  The study was launched on November 20, 2006, the fifteenth anniversary of the General Assembly’s adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.  The study brings to light the unconscionable violence that affects boys and girls of all ages, regardless of nationality, education, class, religion or ethnic origin.  You can read the full report, which was written in through consultation with NGOs and children worldwide, here.

The study recommends the establishment of a special representative to the secretary-general on violence against children, a step that Human Rights Watch supports. Because violence against children relates to the mandates of multiple UN bodies and agencies, a high-level post is critical to ensure strong leadership on the issue and facilitate effective cooperation within the UN system and across all regions. Without this focus and leadership, Human Rights Watch fears that the substantial momentum that has been generated during the study process to address violence against children may be lost.

For more information on violence against children, please see the following reports:

The United Nations Study on Violence against Children (2006)

A Question of Security: Violence against Palestinian Women and Girls (2006)

Climate of Fear (Iraq 2003)

We Want to Live as Humans (Afghanistan 2002)