The first-ever Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children was held in Bogota, Colombia, from 7 to 8 November 2024.
- It was hosted by the Governments of Colombia and Sweden, in partnership with WHO, UNICEF and the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General on ending violence against children.
Key points
- According to WHO, violence is a reality for half of the world’s children; 1 billion experience physical, emotional, and sexual abuse every year.
- Experiencing violence is not only a violation of children’s rights, it also increases the risk of mental health conditions, noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes and cancer, infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS, and social problems such as criminal activity and substance abuse.
- Violence does more than harm individual children; it undermines the fabric of our society. It makes it harder for children to build happy, healthy lives and costs the global economy billions of dollars each year.
- WHO and its partners have produced a package of evidence-based interventions, called “INSPIRE: Seven Strategies for Ending Violence against Children”.
- This initiative is complemented by the RESPECT package of strategies for preventing violence against women and girls.
- WHO also announced to establish a new initiative, Childhoods Without Violence, which will partner with 10 to 15 countries to scale up the INSPIRE interventions.
