Protection
UNICEF helps to protect children and adolescents from any kind of violence, including gender-based violence, exploitation, and abuse.
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Challenge
Venezuela has a broad legislative framework to protect the rights of children and adolescents. Even so, there are still important obstacles related to the civil registration of births and the prevention and attention of possible cases of violence, exploitation and abuse against children and adolescents. On the one hand, in order to ensure timely civil registration of births, structural and cultural factors that may jeopardize the guarantee of civil registration of births must be identified and addressed.
Regarding violence against children and adolescents, it constitutes a complex issue that needs to be made visible, prevented and addressed. Despite the existence of legal instruments and a specific institutional framework to deal with this issue, it is necessary to strengthen the prevention and management of cases of violence and abuse, ensure support for children without parental care, guarantee access to documents identity, and prevent abuse, violence, abandonment and other harmful practices against children and adolescents.
Solution
Children have the right to an identity, including civil birth registration and access to identity documents. They also have the right to be protected against any form of violence and to receive support in those cases where they do not have parental care, preventing abuse, violence, abandonment and other harmful practices against children and adolescents.
In collaboration with the corresponding authorities, families and the children and adolescents themselves, UNICEF and its counterparts work to strengthen environments that ensure the comprehensive protection of children's rights. This includes aspects such as civil registration of births and the prevention of all types of violence against children.
The country program 2023 – 2026 - through an approach with a gender perspective and focused on equity - aims to guarantee that, by 2026, all children and adolescents in Venezuela, including the most vulnerable, can fully exercise all their rights and develop their full potential in a safe and inclusive society.
UNICEF contributions for the comprehensive protection of Venezuelan children in 2022:
- To contribute to strengthening the child protection system, UNICEF worked in coordination with State institutions to support the promotion, defense and monitoring of compliance with the rights of children and adolescents. Part of the work included strengthening children's rights defenders in hospitals and protection services located in vulnerable communities, in indigenous territories and in peri-urban and border areas.
- In an integrated work strategy to ensure the right to identity of children, the civil registration of 47,912 boys and girls was carried out in healthcare centers throughout the national territory. These interventions have made it possible to increase the birth registration rate among vulnerable communities, including indigenous populations.
- UNICEF also contributed to improving the accessibility and quality of services for children, adolescents and women survivors of gender violence, such as psychological treatment, case management and legal advice, which reached 16,832 girls and 13,424 boys, and 31,490 women.
- Together with the authorities and with different actors in the protection system, UNICEF developed protocols and manuals for the psychosocial care of children and adolescents who are survivors of sexual abuse, exploitation, trafficking and gender violence.