WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the First Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence against Children

Your Excellency, President Gustavo Petro,

Honourable Minister Camilla Waltersson Grönvall,

Special Representative Maalla Mjid,

UN Committee Chair Ann Skelton,

Excellencies, distinguished guests, dear colleagues and friends,

Buenos días.

I am honoured to welcome you to this first-of-its-kind ministerial conference, and I am grateful to President Petro and the Government of Colombia for hosting it.

I'm very sorry that I can't be with you in person, as I had hoped to be.

Nelson Mandela said, "There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children."

By that measure, our collective soul is badly stained, because every year, half of all children globally experience some form of violence.

The results are serious harm to their physical and mental health and well-being;

Setbacks to their education and future employment,

Unhealthy behaviours;

And perpetuating the cycle of violence from generation to generation.

Addressing this horrific reality requires concerted action from all of us at every level, from political capitals to schools, communities and homes.

That's what this conference is about, because we know it is possible to make a difference.

Health providers have a critical role to play in providing survivor-centred care, including for those who suffer sexual abuse.

But beyond the clinic, we can help to stop violence from occurring in the first place, by identifying those at risk, and taking steps to protect them.

This work must be survivor-centred, with children and youth as active partners.

Because violence is preventable.

WHO and our partners have produced a package of evidence-based interventions, called "INSPIRE: Seven Strategies for Ending Violence against Children".

This is complemented by the RESPECT package of strategies for preventing violence against women and girls.

Both of these packages of interventions provide evidence-based strategies to stop the cycle of violence in a wide range of settings:

In homes, through parenting interventions;

In schools, through life skills training;

In social protection schemes, through cash transfers;

In communities, by changing harmful social norms, including gender norms;

And in the built environment, through the creation of urban upgrading schemes and public spaces.

These strategies have demonstrated that dramatic reductions in violence and its impacts are possible.

For example, parenting interventions in South Africa reduced abusive parenting by more than half, and in the Philippines by one third.

School-based interventions have been associated with reducing violence among students by almost half in Uganda, and by one third in the United States.

And in Zambia, cognitive therapy for child victims of violence reduced symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder by almost 90 percent.

These interventions work. The challenge is to scale them up for the children and communities that need them most.

This conference can be life-changing and lifesaving for those children and communities.

We need to leave here with ambitious plans to dramatically accelerate progress.

To this end, I pledge that next year WHO will establish a new initiative, Childhoods Without Violence, which will partner with 10 to 15 countries to scale up the INSPIRE interventions.

WHO will continue to support countries to measure prevalence, monitor progress, develop workforce capacity, and advance global advocacy.

I am also proud of establishing the first WHO Youth Council, which I hope will become a powerful advocate for ending violence against children.

My sincere thanks to the countries and other partners that are pledging and to everyone for working to protect our most promising and vulnerable citizens.

As a father and a grandfather, I want to see a world that is safe for my children - and all children.

Again, I'm sorry I couldn't be there in person with you. I'm in New York, and there are some engagements that I really couldn't reschedule, but I hope you will forgive me for not joining you.

But you should know that I'm fully committed to work with you on this very important issue. When I saw this, it's from my heart. So not being there with you means nothing - I'm with you in soul, and we're in this together

Muchas gracias. I thank you, and all the best. Based on the decisions I will follow up and do my share. Full support from WHO.

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