Explainer

Ending violence against children

Children from all walks of life endure violence, and millions more are at risk

An 8-year-old girl clutching a favourite stuffed toy sits on the arm of a bench in front of her home at a shelter in the Philippines.
UNICEF/UN014958/Estey

Violence against children takes many forms. It can be physical, emotional or sexual. It happens in every country and any setting: in a child's home, school or online. And for many girls and boys, violence comes at the hands of the people they trust most.

Children who have been severely abused suffer lifelong consequences. They often experience significant learning difficulties, low self-esteem and depression that can lead to self-harm. In early childhood, toxic stress associated with violence can permanently impair brain development and damage other parts of the nervous system. Witnessing violence can also cause serious distress.

While violence against children remains pervasive, it is not inevitable. Nor are its effects. With the right support, children can go on to heal and thrive.

Violence against children: A breach of core child rights

In 2023, UNICEF developed the International Classification of Violence Against Children (ICVAC) with the support of more than 200 experts from national statistical institutes, academia, and international organizations. In 2025, the framework was expanded to include technology-facilitated forms of violence.

The ICVAC provides a common framework for defining, recording, and classifying all forms of violence against children. It supports the collection of internationally comparable data and serves as a foundation for developing more effective policies and interventions to prevent and combat violence against children.

Violence against children

Any deliberate, unwanted and non-essential act that uses physical force against the body of a child and that results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, pain or psychological suffering.

Violence against children takes many forms. Some leave visible marks on the body, such as hitting, beating, burning, or causing serious physical injury. Others may be less visible but can still have a profound impact on a child's development and well-being, including slapping, pushing, or forcing a child to remain in a painful position for extended periods. Some forms involve isolation, such as keeping a child away from others, humiliating them, or restricting their freedom of movement. In the most severe cases, children may be abducted or sold.

The full definitions of all subtypes of violence, together with illustrative examples, are provided in the International Classification of Violence Against Children (ICVAC).

Any deliberate, unwanted and non-essential act, verbal and non-verbal, that harms or has a high likelihood of harming the development of a child, including long-term physiological harm and mental health consequences.

Psychological violence may involve making a child live in fear: fear of being abandoned, harmed, or that someone they love is in danger. It can take the form of threats, repeated humiliation, constant criticism, or emotional neglect. It may occur at home, in public, or online through harassment, bullying, stalking, or exposure to violence between adults in the family. Although it leaves no visible scars, its effects are real and can be long-lasting.

The full definitions of the subtypes of psychological violence, together with illustrative examples, are provided in the International Classification of Violence Against Children (ICVAC).

Any deliberate, unwanted and non-essential act of a sexual nature, either completed or attempted, that is perpetrated against a child, including for exploitative purposes, and that results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, pain or psychological suffering.

Sexual violence encompasses a broad spectrum of acts, ranging from rape to sexual harassment, sexual extortion, and stalking. It can occur in person or be facilitated through technology, such as sharing sexually explicit images or photographing a child without their consent. Sometimes it takes less widely recognized forms of abuse, including persistent sexualized staring, sexually suggestive jokes, rumours, or unwanted comments. In every case, the child is harmed.

The full definitions of all subtypes of sexual violence, together with illustrative examples, are provided in the International Classification of Violence Against Children (ICVAC).

Discover more about ICVAC

Violence Against Children: A breach of children's fundamental rights

A child who holds a stuffed toy.
UNICEF/UN0636404/Holerga

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child clearly establishes that all children have the right to be protected from "all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse" (Article 19). It also prohibits school disciplinary practices that are inconsistent with children's human dignity (Article 28(2)) and provides that no child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment (Article 37).

cadru de politici

At the European level, the protection of children from violence is supported by a coherent framework of strategies and legal instruments. The European Union's key initiatives include:

Romania, together with many other countries in the region, has also ratified two key Council of Europe conventions:

  • The Lanzarote Convention – on the protection of children against sexual exploitation and sexual abuse.
  • The Istanbul Convention – on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, which includes specific provisions for children who are victims or witnesses of violence.

Violence against children remains a reality in Romania, despite a legislative framework aligned with international child protection standards and the efforts made in recent years to address this issue. Children continue to be affected by various forms of abuse, neglect, exploitation, and other forms of violence, including in the online environment.

Through the National Strategy for the Protection and Promotion of Children’s Rights 2023–2027 “Protected Children, Safe Romania” and the National Action Plan for the implementation of the European Child Guarantee, Romania has committed to developing effective mechanisms for the prevention, identification, reporting, and combating of all forms of violence against children, including online violence. This commitment includes increasing awareness among children and adults, strengthening protection and monitoring mechanisms, and promoting the safe use of the digital environment, with the aim of reducing social exclusion, inequalities, and risks that affect children’s development and well-being.

Through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in 2015, Romania, together with other countries, committed to ending all forms of violence against children by 2030. The SDGs specifically include the following targets:

  • 16.1: Significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere.
  • 16.2: End abuse, exploitation, trafficking, and all forms of violence against and torture of children.

As a member of the Pathfinding Global Alliance, Romania reaffirmed its commitment to ending all forms of violence, abuse, exploitation, and trafficking of children by 2030, both at the First Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children, held in Bogotá in 2024, and at the Regional Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children, hosted in Bucharest in 2025.

Romania has committed, as a matter of priority, to:

  • Strengthen the monitoring of and data collection on violence against children as a critical foundation for evidence-informed policymaking and more effective interventions.
  • Strengthen the child protection system to prevent violence and improve the identification of and support provided to child victims by modernising the infrastructure of the national child helpline (119), reinforcing local referral mechanisms and inter-agency coordination, and enhancing the capacity of frontline professionals through training.
  • Ensure the meaningful participation of children in decisions that affect them by introducing a legal obligation for all public authorities to facilitate child participation, adopting regulations to guide the practical implementation of this principle, and developing methodologies, training programmes, and monitoring mechanisms to ensure that children's voices are genuinely integrated into the planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of public policies.

How UNICEF helps

UNICEF in Romania works closely with government authorities, professionals, and communities to prevent all forms of violence against children and strengthen the child protection system's response. At both the national and local levels, our efforts support the development and implementation of laws and public policies that improve the delivery of services for children and families in their communities and schools.

We also support parents and caregivers through parenting programmes and work directly with children and adolescents to ensure that their voices help shape UNICEF's programmes. At the same time, we engage with communities to challenge harmful behaviours and social norms, promoting social change that fosters safe and protective environments for every child.

Through the project "Strengthening the Response to Violence Against Children through Better-Informed Policies and Enhanced Institutional Capacity," funded by the European Commission under the Technical Support Instrument (TSI), UNICEF in Romania is partnering with the National Authority for the Protection of Children's Rights and Adoption (ANPDCA) to reduce violence against children. The project supports the generation of prevalence data, the mapping of existing services, and the strengthening of professionals' capacities to prevent, identify, and respond to cases of violence against children.