How well are countries protecting children from violence? The Global Status Report on Preventing Violence Against Children 2020, from the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, UNESCO, the UN Special Representative on Violence against Children and the End Violence Partnership, set out to answer this. It is the first report of its kind.
It measured progress in 155 countries against INSPIRE, a set of seven strategies for preventing and responding to violence. The data came from a survey of over 1000 decision-makers, run between 2018 and 2019. The children themselves were not surveyed, and the report covers children under 18.
Laws are on the books, but fewer than half are strongly enforced
The report estimates that half of the world's children, approximately 1 billion each year, are affected by physical, sexual or psychological violence. It also gives the first global homicide estimate for under-18s specifically: around 40,000 child victims in 2017.
The gap between rules and reality was stark. While 88% of countries have key laws to protect children from violence, only 47% said these were being strongly enforced. About 80% have national plans and policies, but only one-fifth have plans that are fully funded or have measurable targets. And although 83% of countries have national data on violence against children, only 21% used it to set baselines and national targets.
Support for parents and safer spaces lagged furthest behind
Progress was uneven across the seven strategies. The best performer was school enrolment, with 54% of countries saying enough children in need were being reached this way. The rest looked like this:
- Support services for victims: 32% to 37% of countries said victims could access them.
- Programmes for parents and caregivers: 26% of countries.
- Programmes to change harmful norms: 21%.
- Changes to make physical environments safe for children: 15%.
The report points to a lack of funding and too little professional capacity as likely reasons for slow progress.
Lockdowns removed children's usual safe spaces, and what the report cannot tell us
The report was finished as COVID-19 spread, and the agencies added warnings. UNICEF said school closures and movement restrictions left many children stuck with their abusers, without the safe space school normally offers. The agencies noted spikes in calls to child abuse helplines, as well as more cyberbullying, risky online behaviour and sexual exploitation. These pandemic observations come from the officials' statements, not from the 2018 to 2019 survey, and no figures are given for them here.
There are clear limits for Singapore parents. The source text gives no results for Singapore or any other single country, and it does not say how Singapore compares. The survey reflects what officials reported, not independent checks. It also does not test which parenting approaches protect children. This is a picture of national systems, not a guide to what works inside one home.
What it does show is that school is more than a place for learning. It is one of the main ways children in need are reached, and the report links its absence during lockdowns to greater risk. It also shows that support for parents and caregivers is among the weaker areas worldwide, with only 26% of countries reporting programmes.