VAC – Violence Against Children

What is violence against children?

The UN Study on Violence against Children defines violence as the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, which results or likely to result in injury, death, psychological harm, mal-development or deprivation.

Extensive violence is widespread against children in every part of the world while their young age demands fulfillment of basic needs along with security. The consequences of violence against children include both the immediate personal impact and the damages that they carry forward into later childhood, adolescence, and adult life. In Pakistan, children have been the most innocent victims of violence. There are growing incidences of violence against children in the country. Many reported cases in the preceding years reveal that children are at higher risk of life-threatening abuse on the streets, in schools, work place, and in various institutions such as jails, orphanages, shelters for children etc. In many cases, children were betrayed by the very individual responsible for their protection and well-being, their teachers, employers, guardians, the police and members of the armed forces and sometimes even their parents.

Forms of Violence against Children.

• Street Children
• Child Militancy/ Child soldiers
• Early Marriages
• Child Sexual Abuse – CSA
• Corporal punishment
• Harmful Traditional Practices – HTP
• Kidnapping
• Trafficking