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Next year the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) will have existed for 20 years. The adoption of the Convention was a milestone for children's rights. What is most important is the fact that for the first time children were not seen as objects that had to be helped to enjoy their rights but rather as active players. Yet, like with any other agreement it is only the day-to-day reality of the Convention that can prove whether children are really entirely protected and respected, and can grow up in a non-violent, supportive environment. |
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| Violence as a means of education breaks the soul of a child and builds on fear and control - a bad start for an independent life - Photo: Y. Ovalle |
SOS Children's Villages, whose central mission is to ensure that children can live in a caring, supportive family atmosphere and can develop according to their free will, is committed in particular to protecting children in the best possible way and to ensuring that their rights are respected. Many of the more than 70,000 children and young people who are currently cared for in SOS Children's Villages in 132 countries have experienced some form of violence, many of them within their own family and/or by a person they know.
Although violence against children is rejected by a large part of the general public, violence within people's own four walls is in particular played down and is a taboo. "Alongside war and poverty, violence within the family and by persons familiar to the child (including peers and those working in the field of education such as teachers) is the most common form of aggression", says educationalist Carola Koppermann from Germany*.
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| Upbringing based on respect is essential for children to be able to respect themselves and others Photo: R. Fleischanderl |
Violence has many faces. It can be inconspicuous and silent, or rough and obvious, it can be expressed verbally or cause direct physical injuries. It can be expressed by ignoring the needs of the child or by sexual abuse. Any action limiting and jeopardizing the child mentally, physically or spiritually must be seen as violence. One very difficult topic is that of the use of force as a means of education - a problem that has to be dealt with again and again and examined within SOS Children's Villages as well.
The contradictory term "a healthy slap round the face" should long be out-dated and outlawed - that's at least what we wish for. In many countries people still do not always agree that corporal punishment is not a justified means of education. From her practical work, Felicidad Marin, director of the SOS mother training in Venezuela and member of the national SOS child protection team, knows how difficult it is to change such attitudes: "In Venezuela we have a number of laws on child protection. However, within the family, corporal punishment is still a way in which adults exercise their power. Parents and adults consider corporal punishment, which is deeply rooted in our society, as the ‘only' way to enforce rules and good behaviour with children. It is difficult to change this attitude, because mothers fear of losing authority and control."
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| Children's rights are not linked to any conditions, apart from the condition of respecting the rights of the other - Photo: K. Ilievska |
The participation of children in terms of their own interests and their integrity is a decisive means of prevention, also against violence. A basic prerequisite for this is that children are told in plain language what rights they have, where violence begins and what options they have to set their own limits and defend themselves. For this reason SOS Children's Villages has not only developed binding child protection guidelines for its staff members, but has also developed a child-friendly version.
Many organisations that work for and with children have such guidelines and instructions and commit themselves to children's rights through active lobbying. But just like in the case of the UNCRC, the most commonly ratified human rights document, these guidelines and instructions are but the basic prerequisites in order for children's rights - both amongst the general public and in private settings - not to remain hollow words but rather to be applied in everyday life. A lot of work remains to be done when you consider that UNICEF estimates that more than 50,000 children and young people die each year as a result of violence and abuse.
Special initiatives on the topic of non-violent upbringing are currently carried out by, for instance, the Council of Europe, while important and useful information can also be found on the website of the Keeping Children Safe Coalition in which SOS Children's Villages participates as well. The child-friendly version of the child protection guidelines of SOS Children's Villages can be downloaded from the right-hand column - please download a copy!
*from an article for the next edition of the SOS-Kinderdorf-FORUM on the subject of child protection which will be published in January 2009.