Editor's Note: (Susan L. Bissell, Ph.D., a leading expert in children's rights, is a visiting scholar and François-Xavier Bagnoud senior fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health. She was the founding director of the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children, and the global chief of Child Protection and associate director of programmes for UNICEF. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion on CNN. )
(CNN) I write this from a desktop strewn with papers and articles painfully detailing the situations in South Sudan, Iraq, Syria, the US border with Mexico and surrounding areas. A Sunday not so long ago, I read online again about the abuse of children. Central American children are braving perilous journeys to flee violence, gang rapes are taking place in India, and even those bullets directed at young Malala Yousafzai are all still fresh in my mind. The list goes on.
These crises and events are stunning in their scope and depravity, and in the depth of suffering our children endure because of them. Yet, as upsetting as they are, it is even more disturbing that they are so commonplace. Acts of violence against children happen everywhere and every day.
Our children experience a cacophony of violence too often in silence, as if violence against children could ever be accepted as tolerable. Our children endure it despite overwhelming scientific evidence of the long-lasting physical, psychological, emotional and social consequences they suffer well into adulthood because of such violence. Our children suffer despite most countries' national laws and international law, including the nearly universally ratified Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), both explicitly declaring a child's right to be protected from harm.
The CRC will be 30 years old on Wednesday. It was the brainchild of a Polish jurist, almost 40 years ago. Now the most rapidly and widely ratified human rights treaty in the world, it has yet to be ratified by just one country -- the United States. The CRC has some basic principles: the right to life, freedom from discrimination, child participation in decisions that affect their welfare and the right to health. In a world of roughly 2 billion children, where approximately 1 billion of them experience violence each year, I'd say we are far from realizing those general principles.
Matters are worse in conflict and war zones, where some armed forces and groups occupy and target supposedly safe places, such as schools and hospitals, where children seek refuge. The routes through which we deliver food, medical supplies and other assistance are no longer safe for the humanitarian workers trying to alleviate the suffering. Moreover, these brave individuals trying to protect and help others at risk are now being deliberately targeted themselves.
The state of our world today clearly shows we are not doing enough to protect our children from harm. In the 30 years of the existence of the CRC, we have seen improvements in health, nutrition, education and clean water provision. So we know that countries do respect and implement international conventions and commitments. Why not, then, the one that calls loudly for the protection of children from violence, abuse, exploitation, and neglect -- in short, violence?
I write, teach and talk about this daily, not to dwell on the fact that our children's world is falling apart, but more to stress what can be done
One of the most common responses I hear when I talk about children's rights and protection is: this is how it's always been. People say that about all acts of violence, rape and other forms of sexual violence, child trafficking, child labor, and others. It is true that the inhuman treatment of children has plagued human society from its very origins. In 2019, however, can we really be satisfied with a sort of 'this is life' attitude, and the inaction that follows?
We should categorically reject this.
Historic violence does not excuse present or future violence against children. It does not have to be this way. Importantly, it cannot continue to be this way if we are to survive, grow, and thrive as a human society. More than at any other point in history, we have the knowledge and ability to change the situation for our children, to protect our children. With this ability comes the obligation to act.
The most urgent thing we can do is work to secure the peaceful political solutions that are so desperately needed to resolve the many crises around the world. I urge political leaders everywhere to commit to finding such solutions for the sake of our children, and to fully implement those solutions.
The most profound example of a lack of political will from the UN down to national governments is Syria. Millions suffer because backs were -- and still are -- turned on political solutions. At least 500,000 people have been killed in the war and more than 100,000 children orphaned. Still more have been born of rape and have nowhere to call home.
Finally, countries should strengthen systems -- the networks of organizations, people, laws, and processes -- that provide children and their families with support to ensure the protection of children in every country. A Canadian living in New York City, I have seen first-hand systemic efforts that are effective.
One such effort I witnessed personally at YouthBuild in East Harlem a couple of years ago. There, children and young adults are actually part of their own protection. Former gang-associated "interrupters" help to prevent violence from spreading in their communities.
Young people affected by gang violence or otherwise in contact with the law are helped to complete their secondary schooling. At the same time, they are taught a lucrative trade, namely the restoration of NY buildings. Social services and social workers are part of the program, too. The result is a systemic, effective, community-based system of child protection that actually works.
As a woman with a long career in keeping children safe from violence, and more importantly as a mother, I want for children everywhere what I want for my own daughter: a world that is not falling apart. I want a world that is held together by adults working so that every child is protected from all forms of harm. Violence against children is not inevitable; there are steps we can take to protect our children, today and for the future, if we can come together to make the change.
As we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, now is the time to act. Now is the time for us to prioritize the protection of our children, and to recognize their rights. All our children everywhere.