Profiles

Even before COVID-19, over 1 billion children (aged 2–17 years) reported experiencing sexual, physical or emotional violence every year. Across their lifetimes, 1 in 3 women are subjected to physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner or sexual violence from a non-partner. Violence against children and against women are highly interconnected. Children who witness or experience violence are more likely to perpetrate it or be victimized in adulthood, thus continuing the cycle of violence. This digest highlights 13 newly curated research papers on the topic of COVID-19 and violence against children, selected based on criteria such as relevance to children's rights; a diversity of research methodology; and insights from low- and middle-income countries.

Violence against women (VAW) is a priority global concern especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Supporting survivors during this time requires understanding the characteristics and magnitude of violence and effectiveness of responses – for which we need rigorous research. Researchers are well positioned to contribute to policy dialogue, drawing both on past evidence to inform critical pandemic responses, as well as studying dynamics as they unfold to inform real-time decisions and future pandemics.

Global stakeholders have raised concerns about the implications of COVID-19 for violence against children (VAC). An increased risk of violence could result from a variety of compounding structural, interpersonal and individual-level risk factors, including the increased economic strain placed on families, stay-at-home orders, school closures and other COVID-19 response measures. Over 165 governments have urged the UN to “Protect our Children” and the leaders of 22 organizations have called for the need to integrate measures to protect children from violence in COVID-19 response plans. To guide action on preventing and responding to violence, eight UN agencies outlined a child rights and multi-sectoral framework agenda for action. Initial and preliminary evidence on COVID-19 and VAC suggests that the pandemic could affect not only the risks of violence, but also help-seeking behavior and access to violence-related services.

A new publication produced jointly by UNICEF Innocenti and UNICEF Data and Analytics provides guidance on ethical data collection and research on violence against children in the context of COVID-19 and beyond. We sat down (virtually) with one of UNICEF Innocenti’s researchers involved in producing this research guidance, Alessandra Guedes, Gender and Development Research Manager, to discuss what this publication is about, why it has been produced and what the key messages from the publication are.

(8 April 2021) There is growing global recognition of the intersections between violence against women and violence against children. Currently there is insufficient interaction between these fields, and evidence on interventions to address these linkages is limited. It is vital to identify knowledge/evidence gaps to address the intersections of these two forms of violence in order to strengthen prevention and response programming to achieve the best outcomes for both women and children.

UNICEF, UNFPA, and UN WOMEN partnered on a regional, multi-country initiative in Cambodia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Viet Nam to explore opportunities and challenges for better coordination, integration and collaboration for violence against women and violence against children, action plans, programmes and services, focusing on violence that occurs within spaces and relationships of trust.

Selina was 8 the first time her father hit her. And while he tearfully apologized afterwards, a few weeks later he did it again. Her mother often suffered the same fate, she knew, behind closed doors.

I actually didn’t intentionally set out to work on gender and came to the issue in a roundabout way. I often joke that while I started out by studying what, in my opinion, is arguably humanity at its best (I have a degree in studio art!), I ended up working with humanity at its worse: violence against children and against women.

While the world may have been caught off guard by the size and ramifications of the COVID-19 crisis, it should be prepared to respond to the increased risks to the wellbeing and safety of children and women. Violence against children and violence against women are widespread globally and intrinsically linked, sharing common risk factors and similar adverse and severe consequences. The literature within pandemics may be limited, but we have enough evidence to say unequivocally that related factors—such as confinement, social isolation, increased levels of financial stress, and weak institutional responses—can increase or intensify levels of violence.

Reflections from the world’s premier conference on ending violence against women and violence against children from the Sexual Violence Research Initiative Forum 2019

19 October 2021 - The second event in the 2021 Solutions Summit Series Together to #ENDviolence series aims to share evidence and foster discussion on intersections between violence against women and violence against children, highlighting synergies opportunities for greater collaboration and opportunities for moving towards implementation to build knowledge and translate it into policy and programs.  SPEAKERSOpening remarks:  Alessandra Guedes, Gender and Development Research Manager, UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti, Italy  Presenting evidence:  Clara Alemann, Director of Programs, Promundo, The Hague  Manuela Colombini, Assistant Professor in Health Systems and Policy and Gender-based Violence, and Loraine Bacchus, Associate Professor of Social Science, LSHTM, United Kingdom  Chandré Gould, Senior Research Fellow, and Matodzi Amisi, Senior Research Consultant, Institute for Security Studies, South Africa  Isabelle Pearson, Research Fellow for the Gender Violence & Health Centre at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), United Kingdom, and Heidi Stöckl, Professor of Public Health Evaluation, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany   Panel discussion:  Paul Bukuluki, Associate Professor of Social Work and Medical Anthropology, Makerere University, Uganda  Lina Digolo, Senior Associate, The Prevention Collaborative, Kenya  Lori Heise, Professor of Gender, Violence and Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH), United States    Santi Kusumaningrum, Co-founder and Director, PUSKAPA - Center on Child Protection and Wellbeing at Universitas Indonesia  Tarisai Mchuchu-MacMillan, Executive Director, MOSAIC, South Africa   Closing remarks:  Emily Esplen, Head of Ending Violence Team, FCDO, United Kingdom  

27 May 2021 - The Child Protection and Gender sections at NYHQ and the Office of Research – Innocenti organized an internal webinar on UNICEF’s Strategy Paper on the Gender Dimensions of Violence against Children and Adolescents in which over 200 UNICEF colleagues from regional and country levels participated. The webinar aimed to help participants learn more about the strategy paper and provided an opportunity to share ideas and recommendations for the implementation of priority actions in this area.

The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action is holding the 2020 Annual Meeting on Child Protection in Humanitarian Action with the theme of Infectious Disease Outbreaks and the Protection of Children. 

On 22 September Alessandra Guedes discusses the intersection between violence against women and children.

18-19 March 2019 - Experts discuss and explore critical issues on building the evidence base for ending violence against children.