A/67/230
institutional developments, and of positive experiences, current gaps and priority
areas of concern.
54. The analysis conducted so far reveals an evolving picture, a picture where
violence against children is gaining visibility on the national agenda, with
increasing legislative action, policy interventions and information campaigns to
safeguard children’s freedom from violence, and with some promising initiatives to
capture the prevalence of this phenomenon.
55. However, progress remains uneven, with insufficient efforts to develop a
cohesive and well-resourced national strategy on violence against children;
uncoordinated policy interventions; dispersed and ill-enforced legislation; insufficient
investment in family support, in capacity-building for professionals, and in safe and
child-sensitive mechanisms to address incidents of violence; and overall, with
scarce data and research to break the invisibility of this phenomenon and promote
evidence-based decision-making.
56. Although the findings of the survey will be captured more fully in an
analytical report to be issued later in 2012, the most significant highlights are
presented below, with a special emphasis on the priority areas identified by the
Special Representative’s mandate.
A.
National integrated strategy
57. In all regions, important efforts are being made to develop national agendas to
prevent and eliminate violence against children. In their majority, Governments’
responses indicate that they have a policy framework in place, be it a broad action
plan on children or on child protection, or multiple strategies to address particular
manifestations of violence or specific settings where incidents occur.
58. At the same time, less than 20 per cent of Governments indicate in their replies
that they have a comprehensive agenda for preventing and responding to all forms
of violence against children. Several Governments acknowledge that existing
frameworks are fragmented or at various stages of development and that only in very
few cases have sectoral policies been put in place to address violence in all settings.
As a result, there remain significant gaps in the effective protection of children.
59. Coordination remains a challenge in many countries, with only two thirds of
respondents acknowledging that a lead coordinating governmental institution is in
place to oversee action relating to violence against children. In a number of cases,
multiple coordinating bodies have been established, but the collaboration between
them is uneven and not always effective. Overall, enhanced efforts are still required
to secure an institutionalized process of coordination across central departments,
and between national and decentralized authorities. This concern is also highlighted
by the Committee on the Rights of the Child in its concluding observations.
60. Two other areas call for further attention. First, monitoring mechanisms to
assess progress are still lacking in the vast majority of countries, and evaluation of
implementation efforts remains the exception. Second, although there has been some
allocation of, at times very limited, national resources for children, very few
Governments set aside specific funding for violence-related interventions, and most
of them acknowledge an insufficient availability of human and financial resources to
support implementation efforts in this area.
16
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