The world can be a dark place for many children: the "lost boys" from Sudan, refugees fleeing the conflict in Syria, child sex workers in Brazil, baby girls abandoned in China, kids pulled into gang drug wars in the United States.
Such suffering by children is more common than most people might think and represents what some believe to be one of our biggest public-health crises of all time. A study published in January in the journal Pediatricsputs that violence into stark perspective by estimating that as many as half of the world's 2 billion children experienced physical, sexual or emotional violence in the previous year.
The trauma can inflict a physical toll as well as a psychological one. Research conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kaiser Permanente in 1995 and 1997 found that those who experience violence in childhood are at higher risk as adults for a diverse range of conditions including cancer, diabetes and obesity.
Despite growing recognition of the problem, however, efforts to fight it have been unfocused with no global agreement about the right approach — until now.
On Tuesday, the World Health Organization announced the first coordinated plan to end violence against children. It includes a seven-point strategy that consists of many practical measures, such as implementing and enforcing laws that limit young people's access to firearms; changing beliefs and values around gender roles, which would presumably target countries where girls have fewer rights and less freedom; creating safe environments by doing things like improving housing; increasing parent and caregiver support; strengthening economies; shoring up support services such as treatment programs for juvenile offenders; and educating children in life and social skills.
[For more of this story, written by Ariana Eunjung Cha, go to https://www.washingtonpost.com...hat-must-be-stopped/]
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