All children have the right to be protected Protecting children This is a general presentation that will help you to understand the concept of child protection. Want to know more? Lets get started! All children have the right to be protected

Janice asks: “ I hear a lot about the protection of children, but what exactly does it mean?”

In this presentation you will learn: … about the global situation on child protection … about the categories of abuse … about the possible signs of abuse … about examples of risks … why to include child protection … and what you can do.

Global situation Almost one billion children around the world between the age of 2 and 14 suffer regular physical punishment. The Right to Protection is defined in Article 19 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child as: ‘the right to protection from all forms of abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence’. Did you know.. Unicef managed to collect some data on the violence against children. In general, it is hard to give figures about the abuse of children, because many cases are not reported. Many children suffer different forms of abuse. Violence has a lifelong impact on children. It affects their physical, emotional and social development and destroys families and communities. Beyond the harm caused to children, violence undermines the economic development of a society due to the long term negative consequences on physical and mental health, and education and employment. This means children really needs to be protected, the right to protection is defined in Article 19 of the Convention of the rights of the child.

Categories of abuse Physical abuse: Neglect: Emotional abuse: Sexual abuse: Exploitation: (Failure to prevent) physical injury or suffering. The persistent or severe neglect of a child or the failure to protect a child from expose to any kind of danger including cold or starvation, failure to carry out important aspects of care resulting in the impairment of the child’s health or development. Actual or likely severe adverse effect on the emotional and behavioral development of a child caused by persistent or severe emotional ill-treatment or rejection. Sexual exploitation of a child including all forms of sexual activity such as rape, incest and pornography. Abuse of a position of vulnerability or trust for commercial or sexual purposes. There are different categories of abuse. Physical, neglect, emotional, sexual and exploitation.

Childrens reactions Be aware children react differently if there is something wrong. Do not jump to conclusions, but check the different options. For example : meisje hoofdpijn.

Possible signs of physical abuse Bruises, burns, sprains, dislocations, bites, cuts Improbable excuses given to the injuries Withdrawal from physical contact Showing distrust of adults Self-destructive tendencies Being aggressive towards others Being passive and compliant Children react diff

Possible signs of neglect Frequent hunger Poor personal hygiene Constant tiredness Inappropriate clothes Frequent lateness or non-attendance of school Low self esteem Poor social relationships Compulsive stealing

Possible signs of emotional abuse Highly anxious Showing delayed speech or sudden speech disorder Extremes of passivity or aggressions Alcohol or drugs abuse Obsessions or phobia’s Sudden under-achievement or lack of concentration Attention seeking behaviour Lying

Possible signs of sexual abuse Physical indicators (general and in genital and anal area’s) Age inappropriate sexualised behaviour Combination of signs mentioned in the slide before.

Example of risks.. How do I know the risks of abuse? Lets go through some examples and find out what you can do to prevent this.

1. During a evaluation session of your economic development program some of the women describe having to leave their children at home alone when participating in the programme made them feel worried that their children are unsafe at that times.

2.“Mr Baker” is one of your organisation’s most generous and oldest sponsors. Your organisation hears he has been questioned by police in the UK about possessing abusive images of children. He recently paid for a child he supported, who is now an adult, to visit him. TEKST AANPASSEN.

3. Your organisation is participating in a conference on child rights and brings a group of children you are working with to the conference. Volunteers accompany the children while they are away from home. After the conference an anonymous report reaches the organisation that one of the volunteers abused a child during the conference.

4. Your organisation produced a publication, which featured a photo and story about a girl and her family who were having difficulties in their village. They had given permission for the story to be published. The week following community leaders, who saw the publication online, were angry and have driven the girl and her family out of the community.

5. Your organisation runs after school clubs 5. Your organisation runs after school clubs. During one of the sessions a girl tells the club facilitator that she is worried for her friend. Her friend has been missing school a lot and staying away from home. When she asked her friend why, her friend said she wasn’t feeling very happy at home but not to say anything to anyone. The girl asks if the club facilitator can try and make things better for her friend – but to keep it secret.

Why include child protection? Children need to be protected Organisation staff and associates need to be protected. The organisation and its reputation is protected. All these examples can happen, and I am sure you know some more examples. As an organization working for children we are in fact obliged to pay attention to this. So why do we need to include child protection?

What can you do? Make sure your organisation doesn’t harm children (Childsafeguarding, see other presentation in this section) Invest in building child protection systems in your community (Child protection programming, see other presentation in this section) So in short.. What can you do? You can take action in your organization and in the community. When you want to learn more about child safeguarding or child protecting programming, just go the presentations which you will find too on our website.

Good luck! Find extra information on our Child protection pages: Good examples Ready-to-use tools Background information Opportunities to get in touch Wanting to leave a comment? Yes please! 