The World Health Organisation’s new report, funded by the End Violence Partnership, explores ‘what works to prevent online violence against children’. It is synthesis of the evidence that presents ways to address the growing worldwide concern of keeping children safe online, with a specific focus on two forms of online violence: child sexual abuse including grooming and sexual image abuse; and cyber aggression and harassment in the form of cyberbullying, cyberstalking, hacking and identity theft. 

The report is being launched on 2 December at this online event, which will present the findings on best practices to prevent online violence to professionals working across sectors ranging from technology and education to social services and health.

Speakers include:
 

– Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO

– Ms Stefania Giannini, Assistant Director-General for Education, UNESCO

– Dr Howard Taylor, Executive Director, Global Partnership to End

Violence Against Children

– Prof David Finkelhor, University of New Hampshire

– Ms Sonia Livingstone, Global Kids Online

– Ms Afrooz Kaviani Johnson, UNICEF HQ

– M Iain Drennan, WeProtect Global Alliance

– Dr Etienne Krug, Director, Social Determinants of Health, WHO

Rigorous evidence has demonstrated that parenting has lifelong impacts on children’s healthy growth and development on human capital. Evidence-based parenting interventions support healthy growth and development, can prevent child maltreatment, and improve mental health of children, adolescents, and parents. However, access to such interventions remains inadequate.

In response to the challenges in caregiving practices posed to families, which were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, a coalition of partners including End Violence, WHO, UNICEF, Parenting for Lifelong Health (PLH), the Early Childhood Development Action Network (ECDAN), launched the Global Initiative to Support Parents (GISP). The ultimate vision of the GISP is to support country-led efforts, so that every family is supported in their caregiving practices and receives the support that they need to develop resilience and protect well-being.

As part of those efforts, this webinar will:

• Present the rationale for parenting support as a critical approach to improve the wellbeing of children
• Develop a common understanding of evidence-based interventions and delivery models
• Examine regional work in progress and gaps in interventions
• Examine the role of different sectors, namely, health, education and child protection
• Promote learning and sharing among countries to enhance support for parents

The Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI) Conference 2022, hosted by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCDO) is taking place 28-29 November. The conference aims to encourage global action to stop Conflict-Related Sexual Violence,  bringing together hundreds of delegates from around the world to showcase progress and secure commitments from the international community.

The ‘power of education to prevent conflict-related sexual violence’ session aims to showcase the protective and preventative power of education as part of the solution to ending sexual violence in conflict.

The session will feature young leaders and survivors of sexual violence outlining their solutions for preventing sexual violence in and through education, and building gender responsive and transformative, as well as resilient, crisis-proof education systems. 

Policymakers will be invited to respond to their ideas and set out their vision and approach to building education systems that are gender transformative and put the safety and wellbeing of children front and centre. 

Moderators:

• Josephine Kamara, Purposeful and GPE Youth Leader
• Alicia Herbert, FCDO Director and Special Envoy for Gender Equality

Speakers:

• David Sengeh, Minister of Education for Sierra Leone
• Suresh Chhetry, Brave Movement
• Nadine Tunasi, Survivor Champion
• Yasmine Sherif, Education Cannot Wait and representative of the Safe to Learn partners

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children (UNCRC) Article 12 declares: "States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child".

It is in this spirit and principle that Love Does Not Hurt (LDNH), in partnership with Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children, and through the support of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and Terre des Hommes Germany, holds a regional webinar entitled "Stand-Up for Love: A Youth-Led Dialogue to end Corporal Punishment in South East Asia".

This webinar is part of the regional online festival of Love Does Not Hurt Regional Project, a cultural campaign launched in January 2020, with four cultural/theatre and community-based organisations in Cambodia, Laos, Philippines and Thailand implementing various creative activities that seek to contribute to ending the practice of corporal punishment.

LDNH asserts the significant role of children and youth, the direct recipients of Corporal or physical and humiliating punishment, to state their positions and forward "child-led" solutions to end the practice in their communities, in their own countries and in the region.

The regional webinar is organised as a platform for children and youth advocates representing Cambodia, Laos Philippines and Thailand to share and state their views on: why CP should be prohibited, and how it can be stopped and additionally, how can they be part in promoting the concepts and principles of positive discipline.

The European Parliament, End Violence’s Safe Online Initiative and WeProtect Global Alliance join forces to shine the light on the data scarcity that hampers our ability to secure safe digital futures for children. As the European Union makes progress to protect children from online harm by improving regulation of digital spaces along with its strategy to fight child sexual abuse, the need for reliable data and evidence of what works on a regional and global scale is more urgent than ever.

The lack of systematic, comprehensive and harmonised data collection and infrastructure for robust analysis of online risks and harms for children in the context of other forms of violence remains a critical barrier to securing a safe internet for children in Europe and beyond. These gaps impact the accurate identification of problems and needs, and the effective measurement of progress. They also undermine investments and advocacy resulting in limited political attention and financial resources allocated to the issue. We need better and reliable data, and we also need collaboration, capacity and sustained political support to ensure data is used effectively.

The event Safe digital futures for children: Data for change will kick off a much-needed conversation on the availability and quality of data related to online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (CSEA) in Europe and globally. The event will provide a platform for key actors and experts from relevant sectors, including the tech industry, to discuss the current data ecosystem and identify gaps, solutions and opportunities for collaborative efforts with a particular focus on the EU context and the upcoming CSEA legislation

Participants will gain an understanding of:
•  existing data and evidence on the issue and what they are telling us about the experiences of children in digital spaces, and the preparedness levels of national systems and industry platforms to prevent and disrupt abuse, support survivors, etc.
•  critical data gaps that are hampering existing efforts to tackle online CSEA and are creating barriers for a productive conversation between stakeholders' groups, as well as ways in which we can fill these gaps over the coming years.
•  high-quality data generation efforts and concrete examples of how data and evidence have been used to design and inform impactful initiatives to tackle online CSEA..

Who's speaking: Representatives of the EU member states and global leading organizations will contribute to the event, including the members of the WeProtect Global Alliance and experts from the Safe Online initiative.

Who should join: Government representatives, tech industry, policymakers, CSOs, data scientists, violence prevention experts, researchers, advocacy specialists, media, and anyone who is interested in the role of data for a safer internet is invited to participate! You can register to apply for the in-person event at the European Parliament in Brussels (Belgium) or join in via zoom online!

Safe to Learn is pleased to announce the first Safe to Learn Regional Roundtable in East Asia and Pacific! 

The first of the three-roundtable series to be held in East Asia and Pacific, this Regional Roundtable focued on Strengthening Violence Prevention and Response at the School Level (Call to Action 2).

The challenge: 
Regional and global evidence shows that exposure to violence including in and around education environments, online and on the way to and from school undermines education outcomes and educational investments. Violence in any of its forms, including physical, sexual, and emotional, negatively affects students’ education, health, development, and well-being, with long-lasting adverse consequences that can be carried from generation to generation. The impact of COVID-19 on children in East Asia and Pacific has been devastating. The increased exposure to violence, including gender-based violence, and school closures have affected their well-being, learning, and mental health. As countries in East Asia and Pacific invest in recovering from the unprecedented education crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring schools and all learning environments provide the access to protective and supportive space that children need is more crucial than ever.

The solution: 
The Second Regional INSPIRE Conference uniting 25 countries in November 2021 underlined the critical role of the education sector as central to ensuring all children are safe to learn in the region. In June 2022, the 2nd Asia Pacific Regional Education Minister’s Conference (APREMC - II) Side Event, reiterated the connection between children’s learning and their mental health and protection from all forms of violence supported by a strong education sector. But how to make this happen? How can we ensure all girls, and boys, in all their diversity, are safe to learn? This action-oriented roundtable will focus on strengthening violence prevention and response at the school level, to accelerate action towards ending violence in and through school in the region.

Purpose:
The Safe to Learn Regional Roundtable aimed to incentivise action at the country level to ensure all children are safe to learn. It is designed to engage participants in practical peer-to-peer discussion with the goal to support problem-solving and to provide a space for the sharing of evidence, knowledge, and tools to support learning recovery through accelerated action to end violence in and through school. To ensure violence prevention and response at the school level, school staff, students, and management committees need to work together to provide safe and gender-transformative learning environments for all children. This policy and practice event will leverage and share countries’ actions and lessons around ‘what works’ throughout the East Asia and Pacific region to strengthen violence prevention and response at the school level as well as major challenges being faced.

Countries involved:
Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Viet Nam.

What to expect:
On the 27th of October, working in a peer-supported context, we explored effective ways to prioritise violence prevention and response in schools as an entry point to improve learning and wellbeing outcomes. During this dynamic 2-hour event saw participants:

• Share lessons around ‘what works’ throughout the East Asia and Pacific region to strengthen violence prevention and response at the school level as well as major challenges being faced.
• Problem-solve by drawing on lessons learnt while implementing policies and programmes to prevent and respond to violence at the school level
• Draw on peer-to-peer inspiration

The roundtable is designed for policymakers working in Eastern Asia and Pacific Region, including Ministries of Education staff members accountable for ensuring safe schools and staff from Ministries of Social Affairs (or equivalent) responsible for coordinating country work on violence against children. Country practitioners will join to create a rich and innovative exchange that reflects on-the-ground realities. Selected partners will also join to support national leaders.

The event is co-convened by the Safe to Learn Secretariat/End Violence Partnership, UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Regional Office, UNESCO Office in Bangkok Regional Bureau for Education in Asia and the Pacific and the global task force of the Safe to Learn Regional Roundtables Series initiative (2022-24) – including the CSO Forum to End Violence against Children, the Global Partnership for Education, UNESCO and UNICEF Headquarters - with support from the University of Edinburgh.

Learn more about the Safe to Learn Regional Roundtable series. 

Explore more:

• Safe to Learn East Asia and Pacific Regional Roundtable #1 Outcome Document

• Ensuring all children are safe to learn in East Asia and Pacific An imperative for the back to school and learning recovery agenda

• Recovering learning and addressing the learning crisis by promoting well-being and addressing violence in Asia and Pacific

• Bangkok Statement 2022 Towards an effective learning recovery for all and transforming education in Asia-Pacific

• Declaration on the Elimination of Bullying of Children in ASEAN