Combating violence against children: Landmark conference opens in Colombia

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00:00Time now for our Entre Nous segment, and today we're going to be focusing on a landmark conference

00:04kicking off in Colombia's capital, aimed at ending violence against children. Each year,

00:10an estimated one billion children experience some form of violence, which includes physical,

00:16emotional or sexual abuse. The governments of Colombia and Sweden have joined forces along

00:23with UN agencies, including the World Health Organization, for the first ever ministerial

00:28conference to take place in Bogota. We can now bring in Mie Kohiyama, an activist in children's

00:34rights and survivor herself. We are also joined by Dr Etienne Krug, Director of the Department

00:40of Social Determinants of Health at the World Health Organization. Thank you both so much

00:45for joining us on the program today. Mie, I'd like to start with you. Tell us your story.

00:51So, I'm a survivor of childhood sexual violence. I was assaulted by an adult cousin when I was five,

01:00and I had 32 years of repressed memory. And I was the first victim in France to go to the Supreme

01:07Court to acknowledge a mechanism that's called repressed memory that prevented me to file a

01:17complaint in the times limit of statute of limitations. And now I have become a child

01:26rights activist. I'm in the collective movement and a brave movement executive member. Brave

01:32movement is the first international survivor's movement that is proud to be a part of the

01:39conference today in Bogota. Dr Etienne Krug, what exactly is a repressed memory for viewers who

01:45don't know? Morning from Bogota. Repressed memory is when the body defends itself from the trauma

01:54that somebody may have lived, like in Mie's case, sexual abuse. And where, as the words say,

02:02that the memory is just suppressed and the body blocks out that event for a very long time until

02:11at some stage it comes back and the person has to deal with all of the consequences of that.

02:16And Mie, just so I can understand well, in your adult life when you had this flashback

02:25of these memories, how did you go about helping yourself? Did you go seek therapy?

02:30That's a very good question. Like many survivors of childhood sexual violence,

02:37I search for therapists, but there is a study in France that shows that

02:44survivors of childhood sexual violence, it takes 13 years to find the right trauma-informed

02:51therapist. So it's a very long road for a survivor. And one of the pillars of our action of

02:57the brave movement is health care for survivors. And it's a very long road and it's a very difficult

03:04one. Dr. Krug, some of the health risks, what are some of the health risks associated with

03:10violence against children? The health risks associated with violence are quite broad.

03:18We know that, of course, there is the injuries and sometimes the death, but the mental health

03:22impact is very often huge with people, children having been a victim of violence, having nightmares,

03:28anxieties, but also depression later in life, all the way up to suicide sometimes.

03:33We also know that victims of violence are more likely to smoke, to abuse alcohol, drugs, which

03:40are risk factors for cancer and cardiovascular diseases. We also know that victims of sexual

03:44violence can suffer sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies. So we're talking about a very

03:51big public health issue. In addition to public health, violence also has an impact on educational

03:57achievements. Victims of violence often have trouble, difficulties at school, which has an

04:02impact on their later employment. So this is a very big societal issue as well. I'm just curious

04:09to either one of you, Mia, let me go across and ask you this question, because how do you go about

04:15policing violence against children, considering that most children are growing up in households

04:20and children, it's difficult to get adults to talk and it's even more difficult to get children to

04:25talk? Well, as you know, the private is politic in this matter, because we have to be aware that

04:34every, each one of us should have in mind the superior interest of the child. And it's true that

04:40intra-familial violence and the sexual violence on children happen mostly in the really close

04:46circle with the children. But it's beginning to change. In France, we had the Me Too incest,

04:52survivors of intra-familial violence, incest are beginning to talk. The authorities,

04:59French authorities, but authorities all around the world are becoming aware of this issue. And I want

05:04to say that intra-familial sexual violence is major in matters of sexual violence, and it's

05:11also major in matters of sexual violence online, because those parents or caregivers that are

05:18committing the crimes in the real life are then sharing the images of the children online. And

05:24therefore we have to protect them. We have to find legislation that are more protective. And it's a

05:31very, very important issue. In 2023, 300 million children have experienced some kind of sexual

05:38violence online. Dr. Krug, how do you go about educating children in this, in a very delicate way?

05:48Well, first of all, it's not so much about educating children. It's our duty as adults to

05:54take responsibility for this issue and to put in place all of the prevention measures that we do

06:00know work. And there's a whole series of them that we can implement. And of course, we do help

06:05children to come forward, to understand. Exactly, that's what I meant. Yeah, to be able to speak

06:10about these things. So I think the dialogues we are having like today and in many other fora,

06:16are breaking the taboo around violence against children. Because as Mie very rightfully just

06:22said, and you as well, this is happening behind closed doors, at home, at school, in clergy

06:29environments, in sports environments. We need to break the taboo around that and facilitate the

06:35dialogue so that children can come forward much earlier. Mie, what are you hoping this gathering

06:41in Bogota will achieve? Well, first of all, it's a momentum. Really, it's fantastic to be,

06:50we are a lot of survivors are here, a lot of youth are mobilized here. For the first time,

06:55130 ministers, countries and ministers are here. So it's a really historical moment. And what we

07:02hope are concrete and bold engagements, followed by resources, by political will to implement those

07:10engagements. And we'll be there even after the conference, as civil society, to hold governments

07:17accountable for their engagements in Bogota. Dr. Krug, final word from you. What sort of pledges

07:23are you expecting to get made here? You know, we're very excited. As Mie said, this is going

07:29to be a turning point. When we embarked two years ago on planning this conference, we had no idea

07:36if people would come. We have 130 countries, 80 ministers, a thousand people from all over the

07:42world, all over the world coming. And over 101 countries have made pledges. What's a pledge?

07:48A pledge is really an official promise. They're going to make it today in public in the conference

07:53room of taking action. For example, 10 countries are going to pledge to ban corporal punishment

08:00in all settings. This is a milestone because it has taken 70 years since the first one did it,

08:08and we only have 60 countries now who've done it. And 10 more in one conference is going to

08:12be fantastic. Another series of countries are going to pledge to improve parenting programs. We know

08:18that one of the best strategies to address violence against children is to work with parents

08:22for having better parenting. And there's a whole series of other pledges around better services for

08:27the victims, better data collection systems, et cetera. Finally, we also know there's going to

08:32be some financial announcement of quite an important magnitude for this field. So we're

08:36very much looking forward to that. And of course, working with all of those who make pledges to

08:41follow up and help them implement them. Okay. Mie and Dr. Etienne Crook, thank you both

08:48for joining us on the program today. Really appreciate you both taking the time.

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