In her report to the 68th Session of the UN General Assembly, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Marta Santos Pais, highlights the progress achieved and lessons learned in the implementation of the strategic recommendations of the United Nations study on violence against children and highlights her priorities for the second term of her mandate. The UN Study on VAC recognized that early childhood is a fundamental stage in children’s development, and offers a strategic opportunity to prevent violence and break the cycle of abuse affecting children. In that context SRSG convened an important expert consultation on violence in early childhood in August 2012, in cooperation with the Government of Peru, the Bernard van Leer Foundation, UNICEF and the Global Movement for Children in Latin America and the Caribbean. The meeting included the participation of a cross- regional group of experts, including young people, and highlighted, among other things, the urgency of supporting families and caregivers in their child-rearing responsibilities and securing a responsive national child protection system to strengthen families’ capacity to raise young children in safe environments and prevent child abandonment and placement in residential care, with special attention to young children at risk.
The report highlights in that context the Call to Action issued by UNICEF Regional Offices for Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia and for Latin America and the Caribbean to prevent the separation of children under age 3 from their families and to end children’s placement in institutional care. The initiative recognizes that placement in residential care has a detrimental impact on the health, physical and cognitive development and emotional security of very young people; and recommends five core interventions:
- Legislative changes and strict conditions for placement in institutional care, which should be a last resort.
- Allocation of resources to support vulnerable families and promote family-based services to prevent the separation from their families of children under age 3, and provide special attention to children with disabilities.
- Capacity-building and standards of practice for child protection actors involved with children at risk of being deprived of their families.
- Information and sensitization campaigns to promote social inclusion of children deprived of parental care and children with disabilities.
- Mechanisms for monitoring the conditions of, and responses to, children deprived of family care.
©U.N. General Assembly, 68th Session, A/68/274
