Child Abuse and Neglect

All citizens and organizations, especially those dealing with children's rights, are welcome to contribute to the consultation of European Commission's Communication on the Rights of the Child (2011-2014). The objective of the Communication is to further advance the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child, first launched in 2006.

12th ISPCAN European Regional Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect arranged by the University of Tampere and ISPCAN (International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect), together with NASPCAN (The Nordic Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect) will take place on 17 - 21 September 2011 in Tampere, Finland. The conference will serve as a multiprofessional and multidisciplinary forum for researchers, practitioners, activists and decision-makers to share views and experiences.

In the period of October - November 2009 Child Well-Being Fund Ukraine conducted the informational campaign "The pain from strapping has passed. But it remains between us" in Kiev city. This campaign was directed to parents who use physical punishments as a method of child upbringing. According to the results of the research made by Child Well-Being Fund in July 2009 near one third of respondents in Ukraine believe that physical punishment of children is not only acceptably but necessary. The idea of the campaign is to inform parents that physical punishment is a physical abuse. It is almost always accompanied with verbal offence and mental trauma and it makes huge harm to physical and mental health of a child.

On 13 May 2010 second edition of the social awareness and educational campaign against sexual abuse of children was inaugurated in Poland. The "Bad Touch" campaign is run by the Nobody's Children Foundation and Children Rights Ombudsman. First edition of the campaign in 2002 made many people realize how serious and not at all uncommon is the problem of sexual abuse of children, yet still a lot remains to be done to tackle it. The slogan of the campaign - "Children hurt by the bad touch want to be invisible" - reflect the organizers idea of reaching to children who are not able to cope or ask for help themselves.