UNICEF in action
UNICEF’s overall approach is to build a protective environment in which family, community, society and state individually and collectively work to secure children from violence, abuse, neglect, exploitation and discrimination. This is accomplished through various strategies and partnerships with governments, non-governmental and religious organizations, professional associations, children, youth and the media. [To learn more about UNICEF’s work in child protection click www.unicef.org/protection.] At the regional level, UNICEF has been collaborating with the South Asia Coordinating Group, which has coordinated regional initiatives towards the UN Study on Violence against Children, published in October 2006. The Coordinating Group’s priority is violence against children, but it continues to work on trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation and the sexual abuse of children and women, as well as collaborating with the South Asia Forum on Violence Against Children. Significant groundwork has been conducted to strengthen juvenile justice systems in all South Asian countries – a key development in addressing the protection of children in conflict with the law. These national and regional studies and consultations on violence against children have done a great deal to raise government and public awareness on these issues. The Pakistan earthquake and the Indian Ocean tsunami emergencies increased the exposure of hundreds of thousands of children to many dangerous risks – challenging UNICEF and its partners to deliver programmes and humanitarian aid to meet basic needs on a massive scale and help restore shattered lives and minds. But these emergencies have created unprecedented opportunities to lift the lid on protection issues such as sexual exploitation, drug abuse and trafficking, and bring them out into the public domain. UNICEF’s Regional Office has also played an important role in raising the issue of birth registration as a fundamental human right.
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