In this joint statement, Karin Hulshof, UNICEF Regional Director East Asia and Pacific and Maalla M'jid, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children express their support for the Joint Statement of the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Social Welfare and Development – Mitigating impacts of COVID-19 on vulnerable groups in ASEAN, which highlights the vulnerability of children, the need to reach them with both social protection and social welfare services and the essential role of social workers. 

"The lockdown measures have increased the risk of children [in Nigeria] becoming victims of domestic violence, bullying and other forms of abuse," says Rev Ifeanyi Mbaegbu in this article.

"The Government of Uganda, through the World Bank-funded Development Response to Displacement Impacts Project (DRDIP) project, is taking preventative action to combat violence against [refugee] children by creating an environment for children’s empowerment and participation," says this news release from the World Bank.

A survey administered by Save the Children in Indonesia has revealed several key risks faced by children and families in Indonesia as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to this article from the Jakarta Post.

"Latin America has been declared the new epicentre of the global COVID-19 pandemic," says this press release from SOS Children's Villages. "With weak healthcare systems, informal economies and high levels of inequality, the crisis presents an unprecedented challenge for struggling families. Children are especially vulnerable and their families risk collapsing."

"Citing the coronavirus to seal the border to an unprecedented extent, the [U.S.] administration is engaged in a pressure campaign against immigrant parents to get them to give up either their kids or their legal claims to protection in the U.S.," says this article from the Los Angeles Times.

Families with children in foster care in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador are "in the process of being reunited with their kids after a lengthy suspension of in-person visits due to COVID-19," according to this article from CBC News.

"Children in Canada’s foster care homes have gone weeks without being able to see their parents in person and plans for safe reunions are still uncertain," says this article from Reuters.

A new report from Change the Record "highlights numerous ways Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been disproportionately affected by the more punitive and restrictive policy responses to the pandemic [in Australia]," including Indigenous children in out-of-home care, according to this article from the Conversation.

"Aboriginal people [in Australia] in prisons are going without soap, and children in out-of-home care are being refused contact with their families under “punitive” restrictions enforced due to Covid-19," says this article from the Guardian.