The U.N. is partnering with other global advocates to launch a new fund which aims to end violence against children worldwide.

The new initiative End Violence Against Children was recently announced by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. The ultimate goal is for all partners to work together to find solutions to fight childhood violence. According to ABC News, a new fund created to support the initiative has already received a £40 million contribution from the British government.

The fund is dedicated to providing support to further programs and activities that target three key areas: preventing online violence, specifically sexual exploitation; addressing everyday violence in the lives of children; and working on the prevention of violence against children in times of conflict and crisis.

The new partnership is in alignment with one of the U.N’s sustainable development goals, which has a focus on ending abuse, exploitation, trafficking, and all other forms of violence against children.

The WHO is another founding member of the partnership and will be rolling out their own plans to implement strategies in countries worldwide to better combat the problem, such as promoting the enforcement of laws that criminalize the violent punishment of children by parents in many European countries.

According to a study completed by the U.N., violence against children occurs in every country and across all social groups. The majority of the time, the violence is not enacted by strangers, but rather by people the children know and should be able to trust.

UNICEF states that one in four girls from the ages of 15 to 19 will be the victim of physical abuse and half of the population of adolescent girls worldwide believe that a husband can be justified in hitting his partner. Furthermore, one out of three homicide victims are under ten, and six out of ten children globally are subjected to physical violence.

The new fund aims to provide key support to countries hoping to make systemic changes regarding ending violence against children. Their website states, “We need to change the way that policymakers, campaigners and the public think about ending violence, winning the argument that we should – and can – make societies safer for children.”

– Sabrina Santos

Photo: Flickr