Vienna (Austria), 30 October 2020 – As part of its critical efforts to protect children from terrorism and violent extremism across the world, UNODC works with a number of partners through the Global Programme to End Violence against Children, with the generous support of the Government of Japan.
Terrorist groups and violent extremists engage in child recruitment and exploitation worldwide. To counter this worrying phenomenon, specialized training materials and capacity-building activities have been developed for some of the most affected regions around the world, including South Asia, South-East Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa.
These tools enable counter-terrorism, justice and child protection professionals to promote the effective rehabilitation and reintegration of these children into society, while establishing common ground for cross disciplinary collaboration.
The overall objective of the Global Programme is to support efforts of Member States in protecting children from violence. It succeeds in doing so by empowering children to prevent violence and demand remedies when violence does occur, and by strengthening justice systems to appropriately prevent and respond to violence against children.
Under this framework, technical assistance is delivered at the global, regional and country levels under four main thematic focus areas: 1) Crime Prevention: prevention of child involvement in crime and violence; 2) Child Victims and Witnesses: ensuring they are treated in a manner that observes their rights and respects their dignity; 3) Juvenile Justice: protecting the rights of child alleged offenders, in particular those who are deprived of liberty, and promoting a treatment that is conducive to their rehabilitation and reintegration; and 4) Protecting Children from Terrorism and Violent Extremism: prevention and responses to serious forms of violence against children committed by terrorist and violent extremist groups.
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