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Physical and other humiliating Punishment
Bullying
Migration
Children’s Right to Adult Support
All violence against children must stop! Save the Children Sweden’s work against violence towards children emphasizes corporal punishment, peer violence (bullying) and child abuse. The Europe Programme argues for a total ban on corporal punishment in Europe - within the family, in school and in state institutions. The aim is to influence governments to prevent violence against children and to mobilize resources for rehabilitation and reintegration of children who are victims of violence. Children are protected by law from all corporal punishment in the following 29 states: Austria, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Kenya, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Moldova, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Tunisia, Ukraine, Uruguay, Venezuela.
Europe in particular is a region with both dangers and possibilities when it comes to improving child protection, both at national and regional levels. Most social welfare systems are targeting children who do not live within the nuclear family, rather than at children who are in need of prevention measures regardless of the family model.
There are many family models and many systems for protecting the child. The way child protection systems in general are organized reflects the view that children are a prolongation of their families. Children often depend on other people to act on their behalf, but there are rarely resources enough to support these people around the child, or even for the individual child itself. All structures need to be based on a sensitivity towards the rights, needs and views of children themselves – thereby calling for increased involvement of children in all decisions affecting them.
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Physical and other humiliating Punishment
There is still not a universal view on the detrimental effects of corporal punishment, the low age of criminal responsibility and migration’s effect on children. These indicators all pile down to the same basic issue – attitudes towards children need to change.
When asked, most children identify violence in different forms and settings as the most common breach of their rights. Different kinds of abuse, especially within the family, and by adults in the child’s proximity, remain a grave and hidden issue.
There is also a clear gap between the two environments where children usually spend most of their time – the home and the school. The circumstances within these settings often influence each other like communicating vessels. Unfortunately, the main persons within these settings do not communicate to the same extent. Communication involving children must be strengthened in order to positively build on the strong links between home and school.
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Bullying
One country after the other is banning corporal punishment in all settings. But in many societies, and in stark contrast to all human rights aspects, it is still a widely accepted form of discipline. The steady, and in some cases even increased, level of peer violence cannot be explained only by the incidence of corporal punishment. The spectrum of punishment methods hides many detrimental consequences still to be discovered. The level of awareness and knowledge among adults, and current mechanisms to prevent the phenomenon, are not satisfactory. The fact that the Internet has been identified as yet another forum for young people’s pressuring and harassing of each other may yet spark some life into this debate.
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Migration
Migrating children are vulnerable in many ways already before ending up in migration. For example they are almost always defined in the media as victims of trafficking for sexual purposes or as separated children seeking asylum. While it is of course true that children are being trafficked or seek asylum, most migrating children are simply trying to build a better existence for themselves, and sometimes for their families. As a result, they run the risk of ending up in severe difficulties, a situation which calls for effective protection. This protection must be properly financed in order to attract staff with both empathy and adequate skills. If not, existing and growing exploitation and discrimination will lead to social exclusion. The effects of migration on children cannot be ignored in Europe today, and has to be acknowledged in all its aspects.
Another aspect of migration has to do with European self-interest, but could also in the long run act in favour of migrants and asylum-seekers: Europe is facing increasing life expectancy, a declining population of working age and falling birth rates which, in combination with political and economic constraints, decreasing support for state services, and changes in family structure, are putting increasing strain on the "European Social Model". Migration is needed if we are to maintain the economy as we know it today, but this notion strikes a discordant note with expressions of racism and xenophobia, which makes it all the more necessary to find adequate solutions.
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Children’s Right to Adult Support
Save the Children Sweden wants to ensure that all migrant and asylum-seeking children have their rights fulfilled. An important means to achieve this goal is to provide each child with a guardian. Another aim is to increase awareness of the risks that might lead to children being exposed to trafficking, and to make sure that international agreements are used to stop children from being exploited in this way. Children exposed to traumatic events must have the right to get assistance to both rehabilitation and reintegration.
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