Imagine a World where each Child is heard and listened to. This World Children’s Day, Child Leaders took over the stage and made this a reality at the World Summit of Child Leaders Towards Ending Violence against Children organized by Caritas India. Child Leaders from Caritas International Fraternity Member Countries all over the world participated representing all the seven continents of the World.  Child Leaders from Caritas Bangladesh, Caritas Nepal, Caritas Austria, Caritas Scotland, Caritas Lebanon, Caritas Germany, Caritas Africa, Caritas Armenia, U.S Conference of Catholic Bishop’s, Religious Sister’s of Charity, Australia and Caritas India participated in this World Summit and expressed their opinions, voices and recommendations to End Violence against Children.

“As we join today at the World Summit of Child Leaders to celebrate World Children’s Day 2020, this moment presents a historic opportunity to unite the world behind a global, national and local movement to protect the world’s most precious asset – its children. Let’s all hear out the Child Leaders from all across the World and listen to their concerns and recommendations towards Ending Violence against children and recommit ourselves to work towards Sustainable Development Goal  16.2”; were the opening remarks from Rev. Fr Jolly Puthenpura, Assistant Executive Director, Caritas India.

Ms.Leeza, AHT -Manager, Caritas India moderated the World Summit and invited Child Leaders to share their concerns regarding various forms of violence against children, the recommendation for ending violence and Key message to the world.

“Nothing about Children without children. It is important that any law, program or policy designed for children must ensure Child Participation and consider the views from children to ensure the rights of all children. To address child rights crisis, we need to highlight the concerns and issues of children and make them visible to all the stakeholders in order to work towards a solution. we must highlight the Convergence of government and Civil Society organizations is the key towards the creation of a rightful childhood for all children”, shared our Chief Guest – Ms.Rosy Taba- Member, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), India.

Ms.Rabina Singh, Child Leader from Caritas India shared that there are several gender-based violence against Children such as child marriage, sexual abuse, domestic violence.

“To end violence against children, it is important that we must not keep quiet, we must raise our voice against violence, create awareness and take steps to end violence together.” 

Ms.Sophie McGuinness, Child leader from Caritas Scotland shared that there are several forms of violence faced by the Children in their Country such as Cyber Bullying, Trafficking, substance abuse etc. “Government has created several laws for the prevention of trafficking and other forms of violence which is helping towards ending violence. But we further want to recommend that there needs to be more focus on creating awareness in the society against existing forms of violence against children and there is a need to acknowledge diversity amongst children”. 

Ms.Nawraj , Child Leader from Caritas India shared that there State has a lot of child labourers working in the tea gardens. He dreams that each child in his area is in school and not working as a labor. Thus, he wants to work towards it and wishes each village has free education centres where each child can attain their right to free and quality education.

“COVID has taken back the World to many years ago. Children are currently devoid of education due to lack of online facilities. The school closures and loss of livelihoods will increase the prevalence of child labour and trafficking, Hence, it is important to focus on the prevention. In terms of our journey towards SDGs, we have a long way to go. And to accomplish them we need to create safe spaces for children through dialogue with children. The need is to create open spaces for children to express and find solutions rather than focusing on laws for everything that happens in a child’s life”; shared Ms.Bharti Ali, Executive Director, HAQ: Centre for Child Rights.

“My State witnesses a lot of child marriages. Girl children are especially discriminated. They are devoid of their opportunity to go to school, engaged in domestic work and married early. Education is the only tool through which all children can have a  safe secure childhood and break the cycle of violence against children”, expressed Mr.Ramji, Child Leader from Caritas India.

Mr.Aloysius John, Secretary-General, Caritas Internationalis shared, “ Ensuring Dignity and Rights of Children is of prime importance for Caritas Network. We follow a two-pronged approach of prevention and Caritas Internationalis is committed to work towards Agenda 2030 through the lens of Laudato Si which invites everyone to engage in dialogue, to redefine progress and to promote development that can benefit all, especially the most vulnerable while respecting the natural environment. Caritas Internationalis launched a program called Traces of Tenderness two years ago for the protection of children from violence across the whole of Latin America. The Slogan was Zero Violence and 100% Tenderness. The same principles have continued during the times of COVID and efforts made to reach out to children through various means to ensure their access to education and protection.  We firmly believe that nurturing Children’s rights and dignity today is ensuring the future of humanity.”

Children in Bangladesh are exposed to forced labour, trafficking and high prevalence of Child Labour, shared Mr.Lobdho Joseph Rebeiro, Child Leader from Caritas Bangladesh. He shared key recommendations to prevent child marriages and trafficking in Bangladesh; i.e enhance awareness and knowledge of children about their rights and laws, make children active citizens through their engagement in dialogues and children’s groups, enhance community engagement to sensitize them about issues of children.

“True peace is justice. True Peace is freedom and true peace is recognition of human rights. I belong from a small country called Armenia surrounded by the borders of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Iran. In my conscious life, I have realized that me, my parents and my relatives have always continued to live in oppression and sometimes lived amidst active wars. During this year, our fears were multiplied by another fear called COVID 19 which paralyzed the whole world and continues do to the same.  Today on the World Children’s day, I urge that my rights are ensured by all conventions and all Human Rights Organizations. Today I call upon all Human Rights Organizations to work for all rights of all children in all Countries and not be deterred by political interests”; expressed Ms. Tatevik Asatryan, Child Leader from Caritas Armenia.

Ms.Soledad Herrero, Chief of Child Protection – UNICEF India shared key insights to end Violence against children. Ms.Soledad highlighted that to end violence against children we must make the Invisibles visible and ending violence should be the responsibility of every person. Children as active citizens can break the cycle of violence. Children are not just the future; they are today’s active citizen and they have the key to their future.

Mr.Amin BK, Child Leader from Caritas Nepal expressed; “The COVID pandemic has created a multitude of issues for Children in Nepal. Nepal witnesses a high occurrence of Child Marriage and Child Trafficking.  Mr.Amin shared the following recommendations to prevent child marriage in Nepal; create awareness about the ill effects of child marriage, conduct sex education classes for adolescents, empower adolescents about their rights, enhance livelihood opportunities to reduce poverty and prevent child marriage, educate all to curb such evil social practices.”

Mr.Arun, Child Leader from Caritas India shared his concern regarding the prevalence of Child labour in his state. He shared that to reduce Child Labour, we must focus on creating awareness amongst parents, ensure that all children are in school and attain education and all stakeholders including the government must take steps to prevent child labour.  Mr.Arun further recommended that family planning needs to be emphasized to reduce family size which will help to reduce poverty and economic burden on the families and hence prevent child labour.

Ms.Shweta , Child Leader from Caritas India Partner – Nepal spoke about the issue of child marriage in Nepal. Ms. Shweta shared recommendations to prevent child marriage through creation of awareness through formation for more children’s club, create awareness  about the ills of child marriage through several forms of media such as radio , tv etc.” To prevent Child labour , government and NGOs should create safe homes for children to bring them out of child labour and hence safely rescue and rehabilitate from child labour”.

As a way forward of the World Summit, Ms.Leeza, Caritas India shared that the recommendations by all the Child leaders would be compiled and presented to World Leaders and Stakeholders as a Charter towards ending Violence against Children.

The World Summit was concluded with a formal vote of thanks proposed by Ms.Rashi Mitra, Officer-Child Rights, Caritas India.