Summary
The DPI/NGO Section held its regular weekly NGO briefing on 25 May 2006 on the UN Study on Violence against Children: From Children’s Perspective.
Amaya Gillespie, Director, Secretariat of the Secretary General’s Study on Violence against Children opened the briefing by providing an update of the Study leading up to its launch in October 2006. Mali Nilsson, Chair, International Save the Children Alliance Task Group on Physical and Humiliating Punishment then introduced a group of 22 children, aged 15-17, who participated in the nine regional consultations of the Study.
The children then took the floor and through role play presented a series of situations involving violence against children. These included parental, sexual and verbal abuse in the home, schools and communities. The children, who came from all parts of the world, participated in the various skits and spoke in their native languages, including French, Russian and Spanish. A girl from India sang a song in her local language, which was translated into English later. The girl, who was a representative of working children in India, sang about the rights of girls who are given away for marriage at a very young age.
In conclusion, the children invited the audience to stand up and sing a song that made no sense, similar to violence. During the question-and-answer period, questions were asked about violence against children in religious context and conflict situations. The children responded by providing examples from their respective geographical areas. The main message that the children left behind was that violence was always senseless and harmful, regardless of the circumstances. They also recognized that typically violence directed at boys was largely of physical nature and the one directed at girls largely psychological. In response to a question about the effect of the violence portrayed by the media, the children recognized the negative influence the media may have on the society and themselves but felt that although they may choose to ignore the violent programmes in the media, it was up to the adults to tackle the problem on the institutional level.
During the second part of the briefing, Ditsi Carolino, a film director from the Philippines introduced her recently released documentary, entitled “Bunso” (The Youngest), graphically depicting the conditions of children in the Philippine prisons. Ms. Carolino started by explaining that in her country there were no juvenile correction facilities. Instead, children as young as nine could be imprisoned together with adult criminals. Their crime may be as petty as public urination or stealing food. A 15-minute segment of the film was then screened, followed by a question-and-answer period. Ms. Carolino was happy to announce that as a result of the film a new bill was passed in the Philippines just last week, calling for the minimum age for children to be incarcerated be raised to 15.
posted by Mary @ 10:17 PM
