Unicef's "Hidden in full light" report is essential to get an idea of the reality of violence against children in the world. It analyzes the different forms of violence, physical and emotional, suffered by children in different countries.
And although the figures are difficult to quantify, precisely because it is a generally hidden abuse, here we have ten data from the UNICEF global databases on different national surveys and multiple studies. These are ten facts about violence against children that we cannot ignore:
- In 2012 alone, the number of children and adolescents under 20 who were victims of homicide reached 95,000, almost one in five homicide victims a year.
- Around six out of every ten children in the world (about 1 billion) from two to 14 years old suffered periodically corporal punishment at the hands of their caregivers.
- About one in three students between the ages of 13 and 15 in the world reported having participated in one or more fights in the last year.
- More than one in three students between the ages of 13 and 15 in the world suffered acts of harassment or intimidation systematically.
- Almost a third of adolescents aged 11 to 15 in Europe and North America acknowledged having harassed or intimidated others at school at least once in the past two months.
- Almost a quarter of the world's 15-19 year old girls (about 70 million girls) said they have been subjected to some form of physical violence since they were 15 years old.
- Some 120 million girls around the world (just over one in ten) have been victims of forced sex and other sexual assaults at some point in their lives. Children are also in danger, although there is no worldwide estimate due to lack of comparable data.
- Worldwide, almost one in three adolescents aged 15 to 19 (84 million) who are part of formalized unions has been the victim of emotional, physical and / or sexual violence by her husband or partner at some time in her life.
- Around three out of every ten adults in the world believe that to properly raise or educate a child, it is necessary to appeal to physical punishment.
- Almost half of the 15 and 19 year-old girls from around the world (about 126 million) believe that sometimes husbands or intimate partners are justified to beat or aggregate their spouses.
According to UNICEF, these estimates are based on a subset of countries with available data covering 50% or more of the world's population of children or adults within the respective age scales.
A chilling data perpetrated by the aggressors and, silently, supported by those who do not report, by those who silence, by those who justify in some way violence against children, gender violence, etc.
Unfortunately, frequent and close events that finally come to light confirm that violence against children is near and swelling these figures on child abuse Here and all over the world.
