Pictured: State and organisation representatives at the UN Sixth High-Level Cross-Regional Round Table on the Prevention and Elimination of violence against Children, CBSS Secretariat, Stockholm
On 30-31 May 2016 the Council of the Baltic Sea States proudly hosted and actively took part in the 6th Cross-Regional Round Table on the Prevention and Elimination of Violence Against Children.
The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Violence against Children (SRSG) regularly organises a cross-regional roundtable to promote accelerated progress in the prevention and elimination of violence against children around the world. Previous meetings have taken place in New York (US) in 2011, 2012, and 2013, Kingston (Jamaica) in 2014 and in Strasbourg (France) in 2015.
Marking the 10th anniversary of the UN Study on Violence against Children and the first year of implementing the new Sustainable Development Goals, the meeting explored the role of regions in Ending violence against children: The vision and implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It also addressed ways of obtaining further commitment and promoting concrete and effective action.
The meeting gathered support for the High Time Initiative to End Violence against Children, which aims to galvanize political will and mobilize wide social support for children’s protection from violence. The Initiative was launched by the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Violence against Children with a wide range of partners, including the CBSS Expert Group for Children at Risk which pledges to continue its efforts to eradicate all forms of abuse, neglect, violence and exploitation of children in the member states of the Council of the Baltic Sea States.
The 2016 Cross-Regional Round Table on the prevention and elimination of violence against children counted on the participation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Central-American Integration System (SISCA), the League of Arab States, the Inter-American Children’s Institute of the Organization of American States (IIN-OAS), the Latin-American and Caribbean Movement for Advancing the Protection of Children from Violence, the South Asia Coordinating Group for Ending Violence Against Children, as well as the African Child Policy Forum.
The meeting identified strategic recommendations for enhanced regional and cross-regional cooperation in the shared ambition of achieving target 16.2 which calls for the elimination of all forms of violence against children.
Pictured: Ms Pernilla Baralt, State Secretary to the Minister for Children, The Elderly and Gender Equality, Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, Sweden with Ms Marta Santos Pais, Special Representative on Violence against Children and Mr Jan Lundin, Director General of the CBSS.